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PROCEEDINGS 

OF THE 

3ADEMY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE 


IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK 


Volume IV] 


JANUARY, 1914 


[Number 2 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


SPECIAL EDITION FOR THE HONOR 
MEN DIVISIONS OF THE NATIONAL 
HIGHWAYS ASSOCIATION AND THE 
NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON PRISON 
LABOR WITH A PREFATORY NOTE 
BY ADOLPH LEWISOHN, CHAIRMAN 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, NATIONAL 
COMMITTEE ON PRISON LABOR, AND 
AN ILLUSTRATED FOREWORD BY 
CHARLES HENRY DAVIS, PRESIDENT 
NATIONAL HIGHWAYS ASSOCIATION 


PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY 
THE ACADEMY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE 
Columbia University 
ii6th Street and Broadway, New York 


Entered as second-class matter Nov. 21, iqio, at the post office at New York , N. 
under the Act of Cotigress, July lb, 18Q4. 


Copyright, 1914, by the Academy of Political Science 











Book_ ,JkA- _ 

V.4^ 

Mo, Z d 


* 






PROCEEDINGS 


OF THE 

ACADEMY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE 

* v 

IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK 


Volume IV] JANUARY, 1914 [Number 2 

GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


SPECIAL EDITION FOR THE HONOR 
MEN DIVISIONS OF THE NATIONAL 
HIGHWAYS ASSOCIATION AND THE 
NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON PRISON 
LABOR WITH A PREFATORY NOTE 
BY ADOLPH LEWISOHN, CHAIRMAN, 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, NATIONAL 
COMMITTEE ON PRISON LABOR, AND 
AN ILLUSTRATED FOREWORD BY 
CHARLES HENRY DAVIS, PRESIDENT, 
NATIONAL HIGHWAYS ASSOCIATION 



The Academy of Political Science 
Columbia University, New York 
1914 


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CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Prefatory Note .iv 

Adolph Lewisohn 

I FOREWORD.i 

Charles Henry Davis 

II PRISON INDUSTRIES IN THE STATE OF 

WISCONSIN 

E. Stagg Whitin 

Location . . . . . . . .12 

Working Capital . . . . . . .13 

Management . . . . . . 17 

Raw Material ....... 20 

Labor ......... 23 

Equipment ........ 24 

Manufacture ........ 26 

Selling ......... 27 

Adaptation to Wisconsin of German Ideas . . 29 

Recommendations ....... 30 

Bibliography . . . . . . 31 

III EMPLOYMENT OF CONVICT LABOR ON ROAD 

CONSTRUCTION IN NORTHERN STATES 
Sydney Wilmot 

Introduction 

The Engineer and Contract Labor . . .32 

Road Construction by Convict Labor 
The Prison Situation . . . . • . 32 

Good Roads ....... 34 

Convict Labor and Roads ..... 36 

Convict Road Work in the Northern States 
Historical . . . . . . . .3 7 

The Honor System . . . . . *38 

History by States ...... 43^ 

Cost Data.55 

iii 






IV 


CONTENTS 


Present Status 

Advantages of Convict Work on Roads . . 7 1 

Competition with Free Labor . . . 7 2 

Effect on Prisoner ...... 74 

Advantages to the State . . . . >77 

Payment of Wages ...... 79 

Operation of System . . . . . . 8i 

Honor System . . . . . . 8i 

Uniforms, Food, Camps, Choice of Work . . 82 

Estimates and Records . . . . .83 

Administration ...... 84 

Possible Future Development 

Concrete Bridge Work ..... 86 

Modern Pavements . . . . . .88 

Earthwork........ 88 

Summary.89 

Bibliography.91 


PREFATORY NOTE. 

The National Committee on Prison Labor in the preparation 
of these monographs has brought to bear the scientific method 
of the engineer towards the solution of a humane problem. 
The coordination of the several phases of University activity 
illustrates the many-sidedness of Columbia's functions and 
suggests that the solution of many social-economic problems 
will be found as the result of research in which the engineering 
departments participate. 

Adolph Lewisohn. 

Chairman , Executive Committee , Natio?ial Commitee on Prison 
Labor . 




FOREWORD 

Truth for Authority , not Authority for Truth” 
CHARLES HENRY DAVIS, C. E. 

President, National Highways Association 

OCIETY has, for cen¬ 
turies, manufactured 
more criminals than 
human nature of its own 
accord produces. The 
more fortunate, but not 
necessarily less criminal, 
have, almost universally, 
cruelly punished those less 
fortunate brothers caught 
in their so-called crimes. 

Correction, instruction, for¬ 
giveness, kindness, have 
played but a small part in 
dealing with the “ crimi¬ 
nal” or “ convict.” Would 
that we might call him by 
a kindlier name ! For many 
of US now think and talk Courtesy The Boston Post 

of him as of a different Modern ( ! ? ) Prison Interior 

breed, forgetting that he Society Destroying Men 

is, after all, a man. We cry out against slavery, yet legalize it 
for tens of thousands. We scorn revenge, yet mete out ven¬ 
geance in the name of the law. We remove from society 
offenders against society and forcibly detain them, for years, in 
surroundings as much unlike real society as is possible. We 
then once more thrust them upon society untaught, revengeful, 
weak, broken in mind and body, and wonder why they fall 
again! Why should they not? Has not society done its ut¬ 
most to prevent their rise? And yet society places the re¬ 
sponsibility upon these poor unfortunate beings! Most of 



























GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 



Courtesy The Boston Post 

Modern (! ?) Prison Exterior and Yard 
Helpless—Heartless—Hopeless 


them are mentally deficient and should have our care and help 
—not our contempt. Many of them have been sorely tempted 
without ability to run from temptation. And all of us must 
run! Some have led honorable and useful lives and would 
continue to do so did society have the forbearance and forgive¬ 
ness of the parent towards the child. And society should 
have such forgiveness and thus restore men to society and not 
brand them as criminals. Our modern prisons are barbaric. 
They typify the medieval prisons, so loathsome to our imagi¬ 
nation, and yet we call them modern. They are not. They 
still hold men in abject slavery, in idleness worse than death. 



Courtesy National Highways Association 

The (Modern!?) Chain-Gang—Making Criminals, not Men or Roads 
(North Carolina—armed guards) 













FOREWORD 


3 

Without sun. Sometimes without light. With foul air and 
fouler companions. Does this treatment, even of the convict, 
produce repentance? No, a thousand times no! Revenge, 
insanity, more crime are the inevitable results. 

As in many other activities, our laws and their administration 
are fifty years behind the times. Once there, how many of us 
could resist the debauching influences? How many of us could 
resist the degrading example of those associates more steeped 
in crime and hardened by their previous contact with still earlier 
criminals? How many of us could 
return to the life outside without a 
feeling of bitterness, or resent¬ 
ment, against our whole social 
structure? We have abolished 
negro slavery, a paradise to that 
of criminal slavery. We maintain 
institutions little better than the 
torture chambers of ancient times. 

They are not designed for reform, 
tuition, enlightenment. They offer 
little incentive to right living, high 
ideals. They are not places where 
erring humanity may be schooled 
and trained to become good citi¬ 
zens. They are more fit to drag 
and trample down into the mire 
the poor unfortunates sent there 
for their “ first offense.” There, 
even plant life does not exist. The 
grass, the plants, the flowers, the 
trees do not grow within their yards. How much less does man ! 
Could there be greater shame to our nation than thus to cling to 
the ancient custom of depriving men of their freedom, shutting 
them up within four walls, leaving them to their fate? “ Men are 
but children of a larger growth.” But do we treat our children 
in this wise? Do we not believe in pointing out to them and 
making attractive and possible the road to virtue? Do we rather 
enslave and chastise them unmercifully for having failed to find 



Courtesy The Boston Post 

Modern ( ! ? ) Torture Chamber 
The “ Hole ” 

Alone—Deserted—Forgotten 









4 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


it out themselves? We used to when parents held the lives of 
their children in their hands! The state now so holds the lives 
of its citizens. When shall we take such power away? In our 
criminal procedure we now have the spirit of punishment, cruelty, 

unkindness, physical force, slavery, 
confinement, isolation, darkness, 
silence and all the resultant evils 
thereof, resistance, revenge, sullen¬ 
ness, depravity, hopelessness, in¬ 
sanity. 

We should turn on the light; we 
should give men the sunshine, the 
free air and fields of the country. 
We should have, and thus give, 
hope, faith, help. We should cor¬ 
rect, not punish. We should be 
kind and square, and our “pals” 
will respond most wonderfully. 
Children are not controlled by 
physical force. Deliberate, low¬ 
voiced, firm kindness and square 
doing gain their obedience. So it 
is with their larger brothers. What 
results to be attained by such a change—change in our moral 
acknowledgment of the wrongs we have done to the convict! 



Courtesy The Boston Post 

Modern ( ! ? ) Guillotine 
Society makes the Criminal 
And then legalizes his Murder. 



Courtesy National Highways Association 
Real Life Making Real Men 
(Governor Hunt in camp with Honor Men—Arizona) 












FOREWORD 


5 


We have been too long blind to this wrong thinking and doing. 
We have had too much pride, too little charity. We have ad¬ 
mired too long the public prosecutor. We have delayed too 
long the coming of the public defender. 

How can we do all this? We must do something with those 
who violate the rules. Yes? But that something should be to 
help them not to break the rules again. Temporary exile, into 
a temporary society as nearly as possible like the one they left, 
would seem the best solution. They would thus be learning to 



Courtesy National Highways Association 
“ Good Roads Everywhere ”—Making Men and Roads 
^Gov. Hunt with Honor Men—Arizona) 

play the game according to the rules. Responsibility, during 
their temporary exile, would increase the desire to play so well, 
so fairly, that they could go back from whence they came. To 
do this we must get them “Back to the land.” But how? One 
way is via good roads, although some prefer railroading! 

To have Good Roads Everywhere throughout these United 
States will mean more to this nation than any other development 
since our Declaration of Independence. During all ages it has 
been of primary importance to provide a people with means of 
intercommunication. People, like water, must move or stagnate. 
They must run and play like the brook itself or become sluggish 
and dull—to themselves as well as to others. Of the seven modes 
of intercommunication—water, roads, post, railroad, telegraph, 
telephone, and wireless—only one, roads, is free to all the people 
of the earth. Roads are the most universally used and are there¬ 
fore the most beneficial to the greatest number of people. The 



6 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 



* 

Courtesy National Highways Association 


Over 1,500,000 miles of such roads in the United States 
‘ Bad Roads Everywhere ” help to make “ Bad Men Everywhere 

importance of Good Roads Everywhere is paramount—their 
benefits are all-embracing. 

There are 18,000,000 children who endeavor to attend school. 
There are over 30,000,000 who should attend school. Why don’t 
they? Largely because during much of the school term a con¬ 
siderable part of the 2,000,000 miles of our roads is impassable. 
This is shown by the fact that only nine-tenths of one per cent. 
(0.9 jo) of the urban white population of the United States of 
native parentage is illiterate, while rural illiteracy is six hundred 
per cent, greater in the same class of inhabitants. How can we 
have or get good schools in the rural districts if we have not the 
good roads to reach them at all times and in all seasons? If we 
do not have good schools, and illiteracy results, then we help— 
in the best possible way—the growth of the criminal classes. 



f Courtesy National Highways Association 

Education means Liberty. Poor roads mean Illiteracy or Worse. 

Good Roads pay for themselves within the Generation which builds them. 









FOREWORD 


7 

The relation of good and bad roads to illiteracy, and thus to 
crime, is indicated by the accompanying table. 

This table does not of course include foreign-born, native-born 
of foreign parentage, or negroes, all of whom are excluded for 
obvious reasons. Illiteracy is eleven times greater in the South 
Atlantic States than in New England, while the percentage of 
improved roads (such as they are) is less than one-third. Similar 



Native White of 
Native Parentage 

Total Population 

Per cent 
Improved 
Roads 

Per cent of Illiterate 
Native Whites of 
Native Parentage 
(1910) 


(1910) 

(1909) 

Total 

Urban 

Rural 

New England: 

Maine, New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, Connecticut 

2,135,801 

6,552,681 

22.2 

0.7 

0-5 

1.2 

South Atlantic: 

Delaware, Maryland, 
Virginia, West Virginia, 
North Carolina, South 
Carolina. Georgia, 

Florida 

5 . 397.864 

12,194,895 

6.7 

8.0 

2.2 

9.8 

Pacific: 

Washington, Oregon, 
California 

1,684,658 

4,192,304 

14.2 

0.4 

o -3 

0.6 

West South Central: 
Arkansas, Louisiana, 
Oklahoma, Texas 

4,101,510 

8 , 784.534 

2.6 

5.6 

1.4 

6.8 



Cotirtesy National Highways Association 

The Children of to-day are the Electors, the Representatives, 
the Senators, the Judges, one of them the President, of to-morrow. 

“Good Roads Everywhere’’ will help make “Good Men Everywhere.’’ 























8 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


figures for the Pacific and West South Central are fourteen times 
greater illiteracy, while the percentage of improved roads is less 
than one-fifth as much. The excess of illiteracy in rural over 
urban New England is only one hundred and forty per cent, while 
in the South Atlantic States this excess is nearly four hundred 
per cent, due to the lower percentage of improved roads. This 
difference is slightly greater in comparing the other two groups 
in the table. 

The children of to-day are the electors, the representatives, the 
senators, the judges, one of them the President, of to-morrow. 
The population is increasing by leaps and bounds. If education 
means liberty, and if poor roads mean illiteracy or worse, have 
we a right not to build good roads, even if they would not pay 
for themselves well within the generation which builds them ? 

To-day we have preventive medicine. Instead of waiting to 
cure people of disease we are bending every effort to prevent 
disease. Why not profit thereby? Crime is a kind of disease. 
Why not do those things which will prevent crime? Idleness 
more than any other one thing produces moral deterioration and 
crime. The building of “ Good Roads Everywhere ” by the 
nation, the state, the county and the town will give constant em¬ 
ployment to the army of unemployed. This will tend to pre¬ 
vent crime if we apply it rightly. 

What better thing than to employ those temporarily withdrawn 
from our society, in the building of “ Good Roads Everywhere ” ? 
Such a policy will be of vast economic advantage to the nation. 
It will give brawn, brain and heart to those most needing it. It 
will give them freedom of mind and body. It will give them 
inspiration, hope. Tear down our prison walls, and rear no more, 
for they are festering-places for our fellow beings. Let us no 
longer go back on those of our own mold ! Let us rather, from 
now on, give our “ pals” a “square deal” ! We can be sure 
they will answer in kind ! 



Courtesy National Highways Association 
Good Roads Everywhere” help to make “Good Men Everywhere.” 







PRISON INDUSTRIES OF THE STATE OF WISCONSIN ■ 


E. STAGG WHITIN 

Chairman Executive Board, National Committee on Prison Labor 

T HE state has a property in the labor of the prisoner. 1 2 3 
The thirteenth amendment to the constitution of the 
United States provides that neither slavery nor in¬ 
voluntary servitude shall exist, yet by inference allows its con¬ 
tinuance as punishment for crime, after due process of law.3 
This property right the state may lease or retain for its own 
use, the manner being set forth in state constitutions and acts 
of legislatures. To make this right of material value the pris¬ 
oner’s labor must be productive. The distribution of the pro¬ 
duct of his labor inevitably presents the problem of competi¬ 
tion, and the unfair competition between prison-made goods 
and those produced by free labor has overshadowed the funda¬ 
mental evil inherent in penal servitude and has caused con¬ 
fusion in the thought underlying prison-labor regulation by 
legislative enactment. 4 

The usual penological analysis of prison labor 5 into lease, 
contract, piece-price, public-account and state-use systems is 
impossible to use in an economic analysis of the labor condi- 

1 Governor Francis E. McGovern, as Chairman of the Board of Public Affairs of 
the State of Wisconsin, appealed, through Professor John R. Commons, to the Na¬ 
tional Committee on Prison Labor for help in reorganizing the labor of the convicts 
in the penal institutions of the state. Investigations were conducted during 1912 and 
the constructive recommendations filed with the Board of Public Affairs, December 
1912. By resolution, October 1913, the Board commended the National Committee 
on Prison Labor and accepted the findings, suggesting their publication. 

2 The opening paragraphs of this report are drawn from the writer’s work, Penal 
Servitude , published by the National Committee on Prison Labor. 

3 “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States 
or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Constitution of the U. S., 13th Amend¬ 
ment. 

4 Labor Legislation of 1911, American Labor Legislation Review , v. i, no. 3,p. 122. 

5 Plenderson, Charles Richmond, Penal and Reformatory Lnstitutions , pp. 198-203. 


10 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


tions involved. Economically two systems of convict produc¬ 
tion and two systems of distribution of convict-made goods 
exist: production is either by the state or under individual 
enterprise; distribution is either limited to the preferred state- 
use market or through the general competitive market. In the 
light of such classification the convict-labor legislation of recent 
years shows definite tendencies toward the state’s assumption of 
its responsibility for its own use of the prisoners on state lands, 
in state mines, and as operatives in state factories; while in dis¬ 
tribution the competition of the open market, with its disastrous 
effect upon prices, tends to give place to the use of labor and 
commodities by the state itself in its manifold activities. Im¬ 
provements like these in the production and distribution of the 
products mitigate evils, but in no vital way affect the economic 
injustice always inherent under a slave system. The payment 
of wage to the convict as a right growing out of his production 
of valuable commodities is the phase of this legislation which 
tends to destroy the slavery condition. Such legislation has 
made its appearance, together with the first suggestion of right 
of choice allowed to the convict in regard to his occupation. 
These statutes still waver in an uncertain manner between the 
conception of the wage as a privilege, common in England 1 
and Germany, 2 and the wage as a right as it exists in France. 3 
The development of the idea of right of wage, fused as it is 
with the movement toward governmental work and work¬ 
shops, cannot fail to stand out in significance when viewed from 
the standpoint of the labor movement. 

In a word, the economic progress in prison labor shown in 
recent legislation is toward more efficient production by the 
elimination of the profits of the lessee; more economical dis¬ 
tribution of the products by the substitution of a preferred 
market where the profits of the middleman are eliminated, in 
place of the unfair competition with the product of free labor 
in the open market; and finally, the curtailment of the slave 


1 Henderson, Prison Systems , p. 128; 57th Congress, 2d sess., House docs., v. 92. 

2 Lombroso, Cesare, Crime , Its Causes and Remedies , pp. 337-9. 

3 Roux, Roger, Le Travail dans les Prisons , p. 31. 


PRISON INDUSTRIES OF WISCONSIN 


I 


system by the provision for wages and choice of occupation 
for the man in penal servitude. 

The problem thus stated finds its explanation in the history 
out of which it has grown and its solution in an analysis of the 
conditions existing today in connection with the control of 
penal institutions, the use of the labor of convicts in their own 
maintenance and in the distribution of marketable commodities, 
and the methods of distribution. The educational and social 
value of methods at present in vogue must lead inevitably to 
social and constructive reform, based upon modern ethical con¬ 
ceptions as to the duty of the state to the individual. 

Progress in the prison-labor movement during the past year 
has been largely in the way of administrative development to 
meet new legislative enactments. The frame of state govern¬ 
ment itself has had to be altered to make possible efficient 
business methods of prison production for departmental con¬ 
sumption. Discussions as to methods ot adaptation have been 
had at the House of Governors at Richmond in December, the 
American Prison Association meeting in Baltimore in Novem¬ 
ber, the American Institute of Criminal Law at Milwaukee in 
September, and the convention of the National Conference of 
Charities and Correction in June. In the actual readjustment 
have been enlisted the Board of Public Affairs in Wisconsin, 
the Efficiency Commission in Massachusetts, the Board of 
Administration in Ohio, the Board of Control and Supply in 
Rhode Island, and various governor’s commissions and special 
commissions in the states of New York, Maryland, Iowa, New 
Jersey, Virginia and California. In other states governors, 
unaided by such agencies, have resorted to the pardoning power 
to remedy evil conditions. The direction of the movement has 
been shaped by the appearance of a little volume entitled Penal 
Servitude , prepared under the direction of the National Com¬ 
mittee on Prison Labor and enthusiastically approved by the 
American Federation of Labor. Theodore Roosevelt included 
this program in his social-justice plank; Woodrow Wilson pre¬ 
sented it as an important part of his labor record; while in 
numerous states the platforms of all four parties declared for 
the principle. The introduction of a federal-jail-commission 


12 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


bill into Congress by Attorney General Wickersham marks the 
effort of the Taft administration to secure an accurate investi¬ 
gation by a competent commission, while the passage of the 
Booher Bill by the lower house places Congress on record 
against the contract convict-labor system. 

In this movement away from slavery by means of scientific 
efficiency there is no state better qualified to lead the way than 
Wisconsin. 

THE PRISON AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 

Why is the prison not self-supporting? This question has 
been asked by the members of each successive legislature dur¬ 
ing the last fifty years. To answer it in the light of the present 
movement for scientifically efficient prison management requires 
an analysis of prison conditions from a new standpoint. An 
answer to the question postulates the examination of the prison 
as a business enterprise. The efficiency engineer in an in¬ 
dustrial plant must inquire as to the history of the plant’s loca¬ 
tion ; its working capital; the personnel of the management of 
its manufacturing, its selling, and its supply departments. He 
must know the nature and quality of the labor and the available 
assets of the plant in buildings and machinery. If there are 
reasons for failure, they must lie in the lack of development of 
one or more of these features, or failure to coordinate them. 
The examination of Waupun prison, and incidentally of the 
state reformatory, must be made from this standpoint. 

THE LOCATION 

The location of the prison at Waupun in 1851 was made 
against the protest of a special commissioner who was authorized 
to investigate the management of similar institutions in the east. 
He held that the town had no claims and had the disadvantage 
of a long cart trip for supplies. He argued for the location of 
the prison at Madison, saying that “ the seat of government 
would afford a means of profitably employing convict labor in 
and about the construction of such buildings as may be required, 
and of employing the convicts in mechanical pursuits with more 
advantage to the state than is claimed for the location se- 


PRISON INDUSTRIES OF WISCONSIN 


3 


lected.” 1 Waupun was selected because of the urgency of 
another prison commissioner, the accounts proving that he 
profited by the long cart trip. 2 3 Again in 1875 a resolution was 
introduced into the legislature to the effect that “ we very much 
doubt whether the state prison can be made to support itself 
under any system of management while'located at Waupun; 
that its present location is too far removed from supplies and 
from available markets for manufactured goods, and submit to 
the legislature in its wisdom to determine whether it is good 
policy for the state longer to continue the prison at Waupun at 
such an immense expense to the treasury.” 3 The resolution 
further suggests that the buildings be used for the insane hos¬ 
pital and that the prison be removed nearer to a commercial 
center. 4 A commission was authorized by the legislature to 
select a more suitable site, but by “ oversight” the bill was 
never signed. 5 The building of the railway to Waupun and the 
increase of its facilities for handling freight and merchandise 
has done away with the inconvenience incident to the trucking, 
though the expense of the long freight haul is still a definite 
item which must be charged against the location of the institu¬ 
tion. At the time of the development of the reformatory at 
Green Bay railroad facilities had been secured, which have been 
further improved recently by special agreement with the rail¬ 
roads. Thus the location which proved an embarrassment to 
the efficient development of the prison industries at Waupun, 
an embarrassment continuing up to the time of the introduction 
of the present contract system at Waupun, has now partially 
been mitigated by railroad facilities at both Waupun and Green 
Bay, and it seems probable that through the interest of the 
railroad commission still better rates and communication can 
be secured. 


WORKING CAPITAL 

Appropriations for the carrying on of prison enterprises have 
been made at intervals by the legislature, but in indefinite and 

1 Journal of the State of Wisconsin , 1852, app., p. 228. Report State Prison Com. 

2 /A, p. 253. 

3 Journal 1876, p. 190. 4 lb. 5 lb. 


14 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


restricted form. The original appropriations were for buildings 
and for the work upon these buildings, the convict labor adding 
to the value of the investment but producing no marketable 
goods whereby capital could be secured and made available for 
future industries. In the construction of the plant a number of 
small industries developed, but upon its completion, no capital 
being available to continue them, contractors were permitted by 
legislative act to take over these construction shops. 1 The in¬ 
genuity of a clever warden in 1858 found capital in broom corn 
raised on the farm, and by the incidental saving around the 
plant, began the development of a public account system, 2 3 4 from 
which came the state-use feature, or the sale to the state insti¬ 
tutions of certain of the commodities manufactured at the prison. 3 
Owing to the demand for goods during the civil war, a start was 
made in a number of industries. The small shops developed 
rapidly and efficiently, but the close of the war with its attend¬ 
ant lawlessness crowded the prisons with many more men than 
the meager equipment could profitably employ. * The need of 
a capital fund was brought directly home to the legislature, 
which, however, failed to provide such a fund. There followed 
a break in the market and a prison fire; the result was disaster. 

The appropriation in 1868 of money sufficient only for the 
rebuilding of the institution, and the legislature’s order that the 
convicts be used thereon, 5 destroyed the industries without pro¬ 
viding the means for their revival. The building had just been 
completed when the panic of 1873 occurred. As a result the 
Corn Exchange Bank failed in 1875 with the prison moneys on 
deposit. 6 The failure of the state charitable organizations at 
the same time to pay for the goods which they had purchased 
involved the prison in bankruptcy, and forced the leasing of 
the convicts as a direct result of the failure to establish a capital 

1 Journal , 1856, Report of Prison Commissioners. 

2 Wis. Pub. Docs 1859, pp. 11—17. 

3 Laws of 1863, c. 248; Laws of 1867, c. 55. 

4 Governor's Message and Accompanying Documents , 1866, pp. 420, 422. 

6 / 3 ., 1867, Report of Prison Commissioners, p. 324. 

6 Report of the Prison Directors , 1876. 


No. 2 ] 


PRISON INDUSTRIES OF WISCONSIN 


15 

fund adequate to carry out the provisions of the state-use law. 1 
The state industries, crippled by lack of capital, were con¬ 
fronted by the contract industries which were organized in 1878 
with ample private capital at their disposal. The decline of the 
state industries was a logical result. The agitation against the 
contract system that swept the country in 1887 under the lead¬ 
ership of the Knights of Labor again brought out the state’s 
responsibility for supplying capital to state industries. To meet 
the demand for the establishment of state-use and public ac¬ 
count industries, $100,000 was appropriated, 2 $20,000 of which 
was used in the establishment of the knitting and tailor-shop 
funds at Waupun. 3 In the knitting shop were placed the 
feeble-minded, the insane and the aged, so that it was only 
natural that the warden should be glad to accept a piece-price 
bid from the Paramount Knitting Co. 4 for this shop instead of 
continuing it as a state industry as had originally been planned, 
although by the piece-price agreement the shop netted the 

*r 

1 Laws of /8yj, c. 300. 

2 Wis. Pub. Docs., 1905-6, v. 3, p. 13. 

3 Laws of i88y, c. 437. 

Sec. 1. The state board of supervision of charitable, reformatory and penal institu¬ 
tions is hereby authorized, whenever in the opinion of such board it is best for the 
interest of the state to establish in the state prison the business of manufacturing, to 
create a debt in a sum not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars, under the pro¬ 
visions of section three of chapter 289 of the laws of 1880, for the purpose of pur¬ 
chasing machinery and materials to carry on the business of manufacturing within 
such prison. But no such debt shall be created or purchase made until the approval 
of the officers named in said section 3, chapter 289, of the laws of 1880, shall have 
first been obtained. 

Sec. 2. Whenever such board of supervision shall obtain the consent before men¬ 
tioned, and shall determine to commence the ixanufacture of goods, wares and mer¬ 
chandise within such prison, such board shall file written estimates of the materials and 
cost of same desired to be purchased, and upon the approval of said officers the sec¬ 
retary of state draw his warrant on the treasury for the amount necessary to carry into 
effect the provisions of this act, not exceeding the sum of one hundred thousand 
dollars. 

Sec. 3. In case of the manufacture of goods under sections 1 and 2 of this act, the 
state board of supervision shall dispose of said goods to the best interests of the 
state, and at the best price obtainable. 

Sec. 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and 
publication. (Approved April 12, 1887.) 

4 Wis. Pub. Docs., 1893-4, v. 2, pp. 12-3. 


16 


GOOD ROADS AND C0NVIC1 LABOR 


state only seven and three-quarters cents per man per day. 1 
The tailor-shop, with its own working capital, and manufactur¬ 
ing largely for the state institutions, became the most profitable 
shop in the institution, earning fifty-seven cents per man per 
day. 2 

The contrast between the contract shops and the state-use 
shops was marked and would have suggested the further de¬ 
velopment of the state-use system, but at this juncture the 
board of control successfully killed the profitable plant. With 
the opening of the Green Bay reformatory many of the boys 
who had worked in the tailor shop were transferred. At Green 
Bay they worked on the construction of the buildings and in a 
chair factory, but the task of building the institution and carry¬ 
ing on the industry was too great for the warden in charge and 
the request was made that the profitable tailor shops be re¬ 
moved to Green Bay despite the fact that the capital fund could 
not legally be transferred with the shops. 3 We soon find, there¬ 
fore, that this profitable shop, removed to Green Bay without 
capital, was turned over to a prison contractor for the manu¬ 
facture of shirts; the original fund, amounting to $20,000, 
which had been used to establish the knitting and tailor shops, 
remained as a capital fund though it was unused for upwards of 
twenty years when, by appropriation by the legislature of 1907, 
it went into the construction of a wall and a woman’s prison.* 
The remaining $80,000 of the fund appropriated in 1887 has 
never been used and is available today. The board of control 
makes mention of these funds in 1903 and suggests them as 
available for a new industry. 5 While part of these funds had 
been appropriated for other purposes than was the intent in 
1887, and although there was a balance of $80,000 still avail¬ 
able for the use of the prison industries, the legislature in 1907 
appropriated an additional $125,000 for the erection of the 
binder-twine plant. 6 Even with this fund the development of 
this project has been slow, since the money had to be spent for 

1 JVis. Pub. Docs., 1895-6, v. 2, pp. 19-20. 2 lb., 1897-8, v. 1, pp. 243-4. 

*Ib., 1909-10, v. 3, p. 449. * lb., 1907-8, v. 7, p. 23. 

*Ib., 1905-6, v. 3, p. 13. 6 lb., 1907-8, v. 7, p. 23. 


PRISON INDUSTRIES OF WISCONSIN 


7 


a building suitable for the manufacture of binder-twine. 1 An 
additional capital fund for the further development of the 
binder-twine plant was appropriated by the legislature in 1911. 
It amounted to $450,000, one-half of which was to be paid 
January 1, 1912, and one-half January 1, 1913. 2 This, with 
the $80,000 undrawn appropriation remaining from the fund 
established in 1887, remains available as a capital and rotating 
fund—the smaller sum of $80,000 being available for any in¬ 
dustry the board of control decides to establish. If the cap¬ 
ital funds now available had been available in the earlier days 
of Wisconsin prison administration, it seems clear that they 
would have prevented the bankruptcy and other embarrass¬ 
ments which forced the introduction of the contracting inter¬ 
ests into the prison system. At a recent (1912) congressional 
hearing 3 the state board of control mentioned the embarrass¬ 
ment incident to the lack of capital. Such embarrassment is 
due to three facts: first, that the larger fund is limited to the 
binder-twine industry; second, that the expenditure of the 
$80,000 would make possible only the beginning of new in¬ 
dustries; third, that the appropriation is unavailable for the 
reformatory at Green Bay. It is clear that the moneys appro¬ 
priated at present are sufficient for the development of an ade¬ 
quate prison system, provided the legislature make the fund 
available for the use of the prison industries as a whole at the 
discretion of the governor and the board of control. 

THE MANAGEMENT 

The management of a manufacturing enterprise must neces¬ 
sarily be in the hands of persons not only competent to carry 
on the enterprise, but empowered to do so, and supplied with 
assistants equally competent. At its organization in 1852, 
Waupun prison was placed under the management of a com¬ 
missioner elected for that purpose and responsible to no one 
unless it were the political powers. The only check upon mis- 


1 Wis. Pub. Docs., 1907-8, V. 7, p. 449. 

8 Laws of ign, c. 377. 

3 Hearing on Booher Bill (H. R. 5641) before the Senate. 


18 GOOD DO ADS AND CONVICT LABOR 

management was at the polls, a situation which resulted in the 
choice of a new commissioner at each election; notable excep¬ 
tions proved the rule. The report of 1874 1 notes that the old 
commissionership, from the foundation of the prison, had been 
a money-making office and adds, “ It was presumed that the 
commissioner would take money out of the office.” Under the 
circumstances it was to their credit that one or two commis¬ 
sioners rose above the popular conception of the office. 

The uncertainty of the management of the prison under the 
commissioner system, coupled with the fire in 1870, resulted in 
the establishment in 1871 of the state board of charities and 
reform as a supervising body with no direct power of control. 
As a result of an examination by this board, and on the heels 
of the Corn Exchange failure, came an attempt in 1875 to es¬ 
tablish direct control over the prisons. Over the warden, who 
was placed in control of the institution, was placed a board of 
directors, who reported to the state board of charities and re¬ 
form. The addition of a sales agent in that year to the man¬ 
agement was also significant, although the office was relieved of 
certain of its duties by the introduction of the contract system 
by statute in 1875 and in actual practise in 1878. The growth 
of managerial power vested in the board of directors, the 
warden and the sales agent of the prisons, soon pointed out the 
lack of power which the state board of charities and reform 
possessed. Furthermore, the introduction of the contract sys¬ 
tem, bringing an extraneous force into the prison, made clear 
the need of more power in the board at the capitol. By the 
laws of 1880 2 the state board of supervision was instituted, with 
power of control over the warden of the prison; the old board 
of charities and reform was continued, but its functions were 
limited to the supervision of the semi-state institutions and jails. 

The anomaly of the two boards continued for eleven years, 
until in 1891 the state board of control was constituted, which 
combined the powers of both the former boards, controlling the 
state penal and charitable institutions and supervising and in- 

1 Report of Directors , 1874, p. 24. 

2 Laws of 1880 , c. 287. 


PRISON INDUSTRIES OF WISCONSIN 


19 


specting the jails and semi-state institutions. Since that date 
the state board of control has labored under this burden of re¬ 
sponsibility, with a further addition to its duties of the parole 
work of the state. The theory in regard to the state board of 
charities and reform was that it should be merely a board of 
visitors, who personally would use their good offices to correct 
conditions over which they had no actual power. The function 
of the state board of supervision had been to direct through its 
accredited agents the business management of the institutions 
over which it had power. The board of control in combining 
these functions has at times confused them. The theory still 
prevails that the board is a board of visitation, and an attempt 
is made by the members to inspect innumerable jails and semi¬ 
state institutions over which it has visitorial powers, as well 
as to inspect as a board, and in that way control, the state insti¬ 
tutions. The attempt to visit in this way was probably possible 
in 1891, when the board was created, but today it is physically 
impossible. The growth of state institutions in the last twelve 
years, while a credit to the state, has added to the burdens of 
the board. Furthermore, the board has not been free from 
politics, the appointments in all but a few instances having been 
made on more or less political lines. The low salaries paid 
have necessitated the appointment of incompetent men; or if 
they were competent, they donated valuable services to the state 
without adequate reward. No business enterprise could be 
successfully conducted under such conditions. 

The placing of the management of the binder-twine plant 
under the board, thus constituted, with the difficulties of the 
purchasing and selling departments and of supervision over the 
superintendent of the shop, has already demonstrated that if 
this work is to be carried on successfully, the inspection of the 
jails and the charitable institutions required by law, as well as 
the mass of other details which now falls to the board, must be 
delegated to inspectors and clerks under it. 

Thus at this time the reorganization of the board seems im¬ 
perative, even if the present industrial prison system with its 
imperfections is to continue. For the development of any new 
and adequate system such reconstitution is still more necessary. 


20 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


In the reorganization of the board by statute, salaries should be 
provided sufficient to induce skilled men and women to serve. 
The board should be constituted of experts representing the 
different lines of management in the several institutions under 
it. It should consist of an alienist or other medical man, cog¬ 
nizant of psychology and medicine; a lawyer cognizant of 
criminal and administrative law; an educator competent to 
view the functions of the board from the broad standpoint of 
the alleviation of conditions which necessitate correctional in¬ 
stitutions, and the direction of the institutions to their proper 
end; a man of business training who has definite connections, 
official if possible, with the purchasing of supplies for all state 
institutions; and finally the governor, or his direct representa¬ 
tive from the board of public affairs, who shall keep the board 
of control in touch with the constructive movements going on 
in the state and who shall aid in the coordination of the state 
functions. The board should be given funds and powers to 
attach to itself the accountants, inspectors, and clerks necessary 
to meet the ever-growing functions which it will be required to 
perform. To it should be given broad powers over the capital 
funds, and the board, not the warden, should be bonded for the 
proper management of that fund. The board should report to 
the legislature, and its members should be appointed by the 
governor with the consent of the senate for five years, no more 
than two of the appointed members to be confirmed at the same 
session of the legislature. A valuable interlocking of official 
positions would be possible. The educator might be appointed, 
not only to this board, but to the industrial education commis¬ 
sion, and the legislature might establish the position of state 
purchasing agent, the appointee to which position would serve 
as the business expert of the board of control. 

RAW MATERIAL 

Until the introduction of the centralized system of purchase 
under the board of control, materials used in manufacture at 
the prison were purchased locally by the prison commissioner 
and the prison warden. Such a practise is never free from 
embarrassment, whether it be that of political partiality or 


PRISON INDUSTRIES OF WISCONSIN 


21 


simply rivalry between dealers with the attendant charges of 
favoritism. These embarrassments the early commissioners 
and wardens had to contend with. The difficulties attendant 
upon the purchase of wood—the material most extensively 
used—have recently been discussed in the reports of a special 
prison investigation in New York state. 1 Under these circum¬ 
stances, it is little wonder that the piece-price and contract 
system found their way into the institutions, the raw material 
being supplied by those who eventually disposed of the goods. 

With the installation of the binder-twine industry, difficulties 
in the purchase of the raw materials have again presented 
themselves. Thus far they have been met by the clever pur¬ 
chasing ability of the chairman of the state board of control 
and the superintendent of the factory, who took advantage of 
the market conditions in the year 1912 to purchase such mate¬ 
rials in South America. According to Warden Wolfer of the 
Stillwater Prison in Minnesota, where the only successful state 
binder-twine plant is operated, 2 success in the manufacture of 
binder twine depends upon the purchase of the raw material, 
which is always a matter of pure speculation. 3 Speculation by 
the prison authorities in a falling market in chairs in 1875 
forced the prison industries into bankruptcy. To avoid the 
dangers incident to binder-twine speculation an attempt has 
been made to grow the raw material on the farm at Waupun, 
but the success of the enterprise will depend upon the ability to 
make twine from this material. There is grave doubt of the 
value of this home-grown product, even as a mixture. The 
attempt, however, to secure raw material from the state’s own 
property is a step in the right direction. The dangers incident 
to the fluctuations of the market and the inevitable element of 
human failure are thus avoided; for even the most conscien¬ 
tious officials, engaged in speculating in an uncertain market 
always dominated by a strong commercial interest, must sooner 

1 Report of Special Commission to Investigate the Department of State Prisons , 

1911. 

2 Report of Bureau of labor and Industrial Statistics, Wis., 1909, p. 168. 

8 lb., 202. 


22 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


or later encounter a failure. The binder-twine enterprise has 
already been launched and must be carried through until it can 
be discontinued without loss. But the state should not wait 
until an off season or an unsuccessful purchase of materials 
forces a shutdown in the plant (as has happened in many 
states) before providing a system free from the inherent diffi¬ 
culties of the present one. 

The state at present owns extensive woodlands in the northern 
regions. It is also endeavoring to sell a large number of stump 
lands. In the stumps removed from the land is a source of raw 
material for manufacturing purposes, 1 while the increase in 
value by clearance of the land would more than compensate for 
their removal. The state forests must be cared for and certain 
timber removed; increased value again will compensate for the 
wood loss, while the roads built to carry the stumps and trees 
to the railroad will give additional value to the state lands. 
Material for wood-working and for pulp could thus be got from 
the state’s own possessions to the state’s advantage yet without 
cost to the prison department. This material would be deliv¬ 
ered to the permanent prison camp, situated on a railroad, 
where a saw-mill and a pulp-mill would be located. The mills 
would supply both the camp and the prison at Waupun with 
raw materials similar to the kind which in former years were 
successfully used. The cost of transportation between the two 
prisons would be the only large item of expense beyond the 
labor of the prisoners. Finally the consumption by the state 
of the paper would make possible the return of the used paper 
to the prison to be used again as pulp, a permanent supply of 
raw material thus being created. 

The reformatory at Green Bay, in its development of small 
workshops for supplying state needs, will require raw materials 
to carry on the work. This material at present is supplied 
partly by the board of control and partly by a prison contractor. 
In the broader development of the board of control to include 
a state purchasing agent, the material can be supplied directly 
through the agent with the institution simply doing the work 


Duncan, R. K., The Chemistry of Commerce. 


PRISON INDUSTRIES OF WISCONSIN 


23 


thereon. The advantageous features of the present system 
would thus be continued, with the gain to the state of the 
profits which under the present system are diverted to private 
pockets. 

LABOR 

The population of the prison at Waupun on the first day of 
January, 1913, was 708 convicts. Of these, one hundred can 
be employed profitably in the manufacture of binder twine or of 
paper. Four hundred men are at present under contract with 
the Paramount Knitting Company at 65 cents per day. Al¬ 
though the contract itself does not expire until January 15, 
1914, yet three hundred men can be withdrawn on three months’ 
notice; upon six months’ notice the board of control is empow¬ 
ered by the law to terminate the contract. The superintendent 
of the binder-twine plant has figured that the convicts em¬ 
ployed are worth from $1 to $1.50 per day, and has noted 
the increased efficiency and the satisfaction of the men at em¬ 
ployment by the state rather than by the contractors. For the 
small wood-working plant which has been established tem¬ 
porarily in the binder-twine plant, the same figures hold. In 
the forests and on the roads the value of the labor varies from 
$1.50 to $2 per day in the various parts of the state. The ex¬ 
perience of those using convict labor in this way shows it to be 
equal in value to free labor, providing the physical defects of 
the convicts are carefully regarded, and sufficient incentive is 
given the men through the honor system and other educational 
features. These features have been introduced in the immi¬ 
grant labor camps in many parts of the country. 

Under a management imbued with ideas that have been 
proved psychologically correct, whereby men are trusted and 
put on their honor, there is no reason why at least sixty per 
cent of the population of Waupun cannot be trusted in a lim¬ 
ited degree. An honor system would be sufficient to retain 
these men with few guards in the wood-camp prison suggested, 
while thirty per cent, or half this number, could be trusted 
further and sent off into the forests and stump lands. If Colo¬ 
rado and Oregon can do this successfully with sixty per cent of 


24 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


their prisoners, direct from the prison itself, surely Wisconsin 
can do it with an intermediate camp colony. In the winter the 
men could be kept busy with stone crushing and mixing work, 
together with wood-work. New recruits would be retained at 
Waupun engaged in maintenance work until the spring. The 
permanent camp should be equipped for lectures and class 
drills and should have a library supervised by the state library 
commission. The commission should also have supervision of 
the libraries at Waupun and Green Bay. In the winter the 
permanent camp should assume much of the attitude of the 
camp work schools for boys and young men which have been 
established in Indiana and elsewhere. ^ 

Labor efficiency would be secured by incentives such as time 
reduction for good behavior, and a system of money credits 
for the value of the labor performed. It would be increased 
by every humane incentive, by the correction of physical ail¬ 
ment, by education, and by the general stimulus of competition 
between groups. The actual expense of the maintenance and 
guarding of each man should be charged against him. This 
system is at present in use at the reformatory. In addition, it 
should be further modified by statute, so that the earnings 
credited to the prisoner may be drawn upon in case of need by 
those dependent upon him. 

EQUIPMENT 

The permanent equipment of the institutions for manu¬ 
facturing purposes has suffered from the lack of capital and 
foresight in purchase—a natural outcome of the decentralized 
management during the institutions’ early development. In 
the early days hand tools were all that the wood-working shops 
required. The maintenance shops for cobbling, tailoring, and 
laundry work required no machines, and while machinery was 
introduced by the contractors, first in the boot industry and 
then in the knitting and shirt industries, no equipment was thus 
added to the state’s possession. The building operations re¬ 
quired special equipment but this was disposed of after the 
completion of the buildings. Even today, with the institutions 
under the board of control, some of the construction work at 


PRISON INDUSTRIES OF WISCONSIN 


25 


Waupun is let out to building contractors on the excuse that 
there are not enough tools to equip the prisoners, although the 
completion of the buildings at Green Bay released equipment 
and made it available for just such work. Cooperative owner¬ 
ship of such equipment under the board of control would save 
expense and increase the opportunities for construction work. 

The appropriations for binder-twine manufacture contem¬ 
plated and resulted in the purchase and installation of a large 
quantity of valuable machinery in a building perfectly appointed 
and erected for a definite purpose. This outlay in binder-twine 
machinery can always be turned into ready capital by its sale or 
exchange for other machinery to be used for a different pur¬ 
pose. The equipped shops will employ from one hundred to 
one hundred and fifty men, leaving the others to be employed 
either by contractors or by the state. The larger the element 
of hand labor, the less the cost of equipment. Work in the 
forests, on the stump lands, and on the roads, requires the 
minimum of equipment. The cost of the few tools would be 
small, as would be the cost of erection of the wood-camp with 
its saw-mill, crusher, and pulp machines. Less than half the 
unused appropriation of 1887 would probably cover all. 

The introduction of wood-working machines into the prison 
at Waupun would be only the outgrowth of the small shop al¬ 
ready established. The cellar of the binder-twine building has 
been so constructed that it can readily be adapted as a foundry 
incident to the needs of furniture manufacture. The shops at 
present used by the contracting firm, while ill-suited to their 
present use, could be made available without much difficulty or 
much cost. The balance of the fund of 1887 would equip these 
shops sufficiently for the beginning of a new industry. The 
rotating capital fund, broadened in its application to the gen¬ 
eral state industries, would supply the other needs. 

At the reformatory at Green Bay the ingenuity of the super¬ 
intendent has already developed a number of small shops mod¬ 
erately equipped—with tools institution-made. These shops, 
which were first needed for construction work, are now being 
fitted for the manufacture of commodities for state needs. 
Each addition to these shops will increase the value of the plant 


2 6 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


to the state. The use of the credit of the capital fund and 
better enforcement of the state market regulation would admit 
of the more rapid development of these shops, and the elimina¬ 
tion of the piece-price shirt contract and the machinery owned 
by the contractors. 


MANUFACTURE 

The actual production of goods in a factory, or the accom¬ 
plishment of work on a highroad, or in a forest or stump 
clearing, depends not only upon capital, management, labor 
force, and equipment, but upon the supervision of the business 
detail by those immediately in charge. Competent foremen 
must be secured, and sufficient remuneration given them to 
secure them permanently in the work. They must establish 
the work on that basis of efficiency which constitutes definite 
discipline for both labor and supervising force. 

The conditions of labor, both indoors and out, must be made 
similar to those under which free labor is worked. In the con¬ 
tract shops guards sit in lofty idleness, watching the hard-work¬ 
ing foreman and convicts, always contrasting the dignity of 
idleness with the dignity of labor. The working guard with the 
road gang, or in the woods, develops a spirit that gets the work 
accomplished, while the guard perched on the fence with a gun 
on his shoulder proves a veritable scarecrow to drive efficiency 
away. It is to the credit of the new binder-twine foreman at 
Waupun that he is developing that plant without idle guards 
and with foremen who work. The elimination of this waste 
inherent in the contract system will therefore add to the state’s 
profit. Scientific management should be introduced both in 
the state shops and in the road gangs, while a system of check¬ 
ing of the goods, of blocking out the work and holding the 
individual responsible for it, as well as giving definite reward 
for work well done, is necessary. The system of efficiency 
checks, established by the board of public affairs for the road 
department of the state, need only be applied to the convict 
camps, to Waupun and Green Bay. 


PRISON INDUSTRIES OF WISCONSIN 


27 


SELLING 

The selling of prison products has been a matter of no little 
difficulty. The principle was established in the year 1863 that 
the state superintendent of public property should act as agent 
for the state departments in buying the goods manufactured in 
the prison, although the articles manufactured and purchased 
were limited to certain wooden articles and furnishings. In 
1867 all institutions were instructed to buy these articles and a 
large number of other articles which might be manufactured. 
In 1875 they were required to secure these things from the 
prison. This law is still in force (under statute 1898 s. 608), 
and applies to all state institutions and others getting state money, 
requiring them to notify the prison of their needs. The diffi¬ 
culty with these statutes lies in the fact that there is no one to 
compel their being fully carried out. The commissioner or the 
warden gets orders again and again under these provisions, but 
as has been seen, the goods were frequently not paid for by the 
the departments which ordered them. The board of control 
has become the natural sales agent between the several institu¬ 
tions under its supervision, though the idea of exchange of 
commodities has been lost sight of at times because of the 
makeup of the board. As an example, the board at one time 
refused to buy chairs which were to be used in the insane hos¬ 
pital directly from the Milwaukee workhouse, only to buy the 
same chairs later after they had passed through the wholesale 
house and added the middleman’s profit. 

The cost of selling is probably the largest item in the binder- 
twine industry. This responsibility now confronts the board of 
control. The sale of paper to the state would be without this 
expense. The output of a small unit paper plant would con¬ 
form with the annual amount purchased by the state. The 
paper at present used by the state of Wisconsin is manufactured 
outside the state, and the middleman’s profit alone, according 
to his own testimony, amounts to $17,000 annually. While the 
constitution provides that bids must be placed for this paper, 
the warden of the penitentiary or the chairman of the board of 
control, who surely cannot be said to be making personal profit 


28 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


from such bidding, should outbid all others and sell the paper 
to the state. 

The law requires that the prison be notified by all state insti¬ 
tutions receiving state moneys as to their needs. This presents 
another opportunity for the direct sale of commodities by the 
penal institutions, without resorting to the middleman or sales 
agent. The confusion in administration has limited this field, 
as has been shown above. Under this head comes the sale of 
goods to institutions and departments which the reformatory at 
Green Bay will soon be able to supply. 

The market in school-desks and other school furnishings, 
furniture for the departments and state institutions and the gen¬ 
eral wood-work for the same, can be secured only by gradual 
working up through the board of control or the proposed sales 
agent, but its extent can be ascertained from the following: 
The public school enrolment of the state amounts to 460,000 
children, while the forty new high schools add still more to the 
number. It is impossible to ascertain the annual purchase of 
desks, but their average life is less than twenty years and there 
is at present a definite need for new equipment. It would be 
safe to estimate the annual demand at 50,000 desks. These 
desks cost from $1.75 to $2.25, making an average of $2 a 
desk or $100,000 as the annual investment in desks. There 
are 25,000 teachers whose desks average ten years of use, mak¬ 
ing an annual need of 2500 pieces of the better grade of school 
furniture. To these must be added the high-school equipment 
in sloyd benches, general benches and physics tables, also some 
ten thousand little chairs for kindergartens, sashes and doors 
for new school houses, and gymnasium equipment, such as 
Indian clubs. During the year 1911-12 the university pur¬ 
chased furniture to the amount of $16,766. To this must be 
added the purchases by the board of control, the superintend¬ 
ent of public buildings and other officials. 

The failure to enforce the present statutes and to coordinate 
the various departments is due to the lack of a state purchasing 
agent, who should be a member of the board of control. Such 
an office should be created if possible in connection with the 
board of public affairs, and given powers adequate for the 


PRISON INDUSTRIES OF WISCONSIN 


29 


carrying-out of the broad coordination necessary if the state 
government is to perform its functions in an efficient manner. 

ADAPTATION TO WISCONSIN OF GERMAN IDEAS 

The recommendations already noted naturally grew out of 
the present conditions and the present needs of the prison 
workshops and of the opportunities which are at hand in the 
state. Novelty is not claimed for any of the suggestions. The 
idea of prison production for state consumption has been em¬ 
bodied in the Wisconsin law from the very outset and is similar 
to the principle that has been followed in Germany since 1877. 1 
At that time the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, under Chan¬ 
cellor Krohne, acting on the recommendations of the German 
chamber of commerce, which had made a detailed investigation 
into the subject, adopted the principle and applied it gradually 
to the furnishing of supplies to the district authorities, to the 
army, the navy, the postal department, the railroad and the 
courts. In 1894 New York state, under the leadership of Elihu 
Root, embodied the same principle in its constitution. Ohio 
in 1911 adopted it in a bill recommended by Governor Har¬ 
mon, only to place it in its constitution in 1912. The legisla¬ 
ture of New Jersey on the recommendation of Woodrow Wilson 
passed a similar statute, while Missouri under Governor Had¬ 
ley, Wyoming under Governor Carey, and California under 
Governor Johnson also have adopted the principle. This is a 
German idea being adapted to American conditions. More 
recent developments in Germany have extended the idea of 
state use to the employment of convicts on public works and 
ways, in the development of canals, in the reclaiming of marsh, 
in reforestation, and in the larger phases of agriculture. 

France has successfully employed convicts in reforestation 
for many years, and a recent visit of Governor Dix of New 
York to these reforestation camps resulted in their establish¬ 
ment in New York state. Governor Johnson of California also 
conducted them successfully during 1912. 

1 Die Gefangnisarbeit , Vortrag gehalten am 26 Juli, itpoo, von Dr. Franz V. 
Liszt, ord. Professor des Rechis in der Universitat Berlin. 


30 


GOOD ROADS ADD CONVICT LABOR 


In many states convicts are employed on the roads and in 
crushing stone, while in Wisconsin and several others the farm 
project is already recognized. The manufacture of school 
desks and furniture for the state has been authorized by the 
Wisconsin legislature since 1867, while furniture of some kind 
has been manufactured at Waupun during about half the years 
of its existence. The introduction of printing is already an 
accomplished fact in the reform school at Waukesha, in the 
prisons of New York, and in the prisons of a number of other 
states. It is here suggested that printing be introduced at 
Waupun for life-termers only. This would be desirable, as they 
would become trained workers and yet would not be discharged 
to compete with other workers in this trade. The manufacture 
of paper is a new idea in this country, but it is one that has 
been successful at the workhouse at Brauweiler in Germany. 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

1. That a bill be passed by the legislature reorganizing the 
board of control so that it may be a board of experts repre¬ 
senting the several phases of its activity, with a state sales agent 
attached thereto, together with a force of clerks and inspectors 
sufficient to conduct the work of the board, and with sufficient 
appropriations to pay adequate salaries. 

2. That the board of control and the officers of the state de¬ 
partments see to the enforcement of statute 1898, s. 608, which 
provides for the manufacture and exchange of commodities be¬ 
tween the prison and penitentiary and the other departments, 
institutions and districts. To the reformatory at Green Bay 
the board should assign the manufacture of all articles except 
those of wood, which should be retained for manufacture at 
the state prison at Waupun. 

3. That a stone-quarry site be selected upon the state land 
in the northern part of the state, abutting upon a railroad, 
where a permanent camp could be constructed, equipped with 
machines for crushing rock, and with a pulp factory for the 
preparation of wood products. The camp, once constructed, 
should be connected by roads with the state timber lands and 
the state stump lands. All prisoners who can be placed on 


PRISON INDUSTRIES OF WISCONSIN 


31 


their honor should be sent to this camp, where a second selec¬ 
tion of those still more trustworthy should be made. This 
latter group should be used to clear the stump lands, and to do 
reforestation work in the state forest lands. The stumps and 
the wood cleared from the lands should be brought down to 
the pulp factory, and the crushed stone taken back for the 
further extension of the roads. 

The pulp and the boards from the wood-camp should be 
shipped to Waupun, where there should be established a school- 
desk and state furniture factory, a paper mill, and a printing 
shop. In the printing shop life-prisoners should be used. The 
products of this plant should be delivered to the several parts 
and departments of the state; the warden of the prison should 
place a bid for the state printing, excepting the legislative, and 
should secure the same according to the rules laid down by the 
constitution. Waste paper gathered from the departments of 
the state should be returned to the prison and used again as 
pulp. 

4. That a law be passed authorizing the payment to the con¬ 
vict of a wage based on his productivity, which should be in¬ 
creased by the most scientific medical care and the correction 
of physical defects, together with such regulations for education 
in prison and road-camp as shall prove an incentive to better 
living and better work. The actual expenses of the mainte¬ 
nance and guarding of the convict should be charged against 
him and deducted from the allowance credited to him on the 
basis of the free man’s work. By law, the balance should go 
to his wife, children and other dependents. 

A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Penal Servitude , by E. Stagg Whitin, Ph. D. Published by the National Committee 
on Prison Labor, 1911. 

Die Gefangnisarbeit , by Dr. Franz v. Liszt, Berlin, 1909. 

Prison Labor; Annals American Academy of Political and Social Science , March, 
1913 - 

Trade Unions and Prison Labor, by E. Stagg Whitin, Case and Comment, Septem¬ 
ber, 1913. 

The Caged Man, by E. Stagg Whitin, Ph.D., Bulletin of Social Legislation , pub¬ 
lished by the Bergh Foundation, Columbia University, 1913. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR FOR HIGHWAY 
CONSTRUCTION IN THE NORTH 1 


SYDNEY WILMOT, B. S. IN C. EA. M. 

T HE engineer is, or should be, a many-sided man; yet his 
relation to the problem of convict labor is not apparent 
to the casual observer. His interest in the matter is 
not of his own choosing. Ever since the working of state 
convicts on public roads has been advocated, opponents have 
questioned its feasibility in actual operation. Assurance is 
demanded of the success of the scheme in every particular 
case, before its trial will be sanctioned. Can the convicts do 
the work required under the peculiar conditions in each case? 
How can they do it? And especially, will it pay? Answers 
to these problems are demanded of the highway engineer. 

CONVICT LABOR AND GOOD ROADS 

It is unnecessary to go deeply into the need of a change in 
the present system of dealing with convicts; penologists and 
prison reformers have proved this necessity beyond a per- 
adventure. Convicts are the property of the state to be used 
as the state in its own wisdom and sovereign authority sees 
fit. This is sanctioned by the constitution—legalized slavery. 
Early it was seen that idleness is detrimental. Even to-day 
in many prisons “ solitary confinement ” is the severest dis¬ 
ciplinary measure in use. Prisoners have often been known 
to develop insanity under its influence. 2 “ Satan finds some 
mischief still for idle hands to do ”—in this case, it is brood¬ 
ing, the aggravation of the desire for revenge, rather than the 
consciousness of guilt. 

1 An essay submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree 
of Master of Arts in the Department of Highway Engineering under the 
Faculty of Pure Science of Columbia University in the City of New York. 

2 In the Ohio penitentiary during inactivity, eight men were transferred to 
the prison asylum in one month, the previous average under contract labor 
being about one per month .—New York Evening Sun, February 7, 1911. 


USE OF CONVICT LAB OF IN THE NORTH 


33 

History shows that through the evolution of our social institutions 
the convicted man has been treated in two ways, both economic. 
When economically valueless he has been killed; when economically 
valuable he has been enslaved. In this country when the industrial 
revolution created a demand for laborers, the children were seized 
and thrown into the mills; a similar fate befel the prisoner. In the 
South the convict was turned over bodily to a lessee who clothed and 
fed him and worked him as he willed. In the North, to meet the 
demands of the public that big institutions be built, and to supply 
the needs of the prisoners, the lessee was admitted into the prison. 1 

This system has rapidly degenerated until to-day its former 
advantages are completely buried beneath the abuses to which 
it is subject. Our prison shops have become the channel 
through which the earnings of the prisoner have been diverted 
from his family and the state to furnish public graft and 
private profit. Methods of supervision patterned after those 
of the old Roman galley are in vogue. The system produces 
broken-spirited, distrustful, revengeful, and physically weak¬ 
ened men, who, by their condition and disposition are often in¬ 
capable of earning an honest living, and who, by their appear¬ 
ance and manner, are unlikely to get the chance. The resultant 
increase in our prison population and the multitude of of¬ 
fenders who repeat their offenses are incontrovertible proofs 
of the inadequacy and absolute failure of our methods of 
treatment. 

Moreover, not only does the state suffer, but free outside 
labor is brought into unfair and disadvantageous competition, 
since the prices paid for prison labor are very low. Organ¬ 
ized labor has not been slow in appreciating these facts or 
backward in pressing its claim for the prevention of such 
competition. Nor is this all; the prisoner’s family, dependent 
upon him for support, is deprived of the barest necessaries of 
life. The shortcomings of the system have been two-fold : the 
convict, the person most seriously affected, has been least con¬ 
sidered; and the innocent have been made to suffer instead of 

1 Prison Labor , by E. Stagg Whitin. An address delivered before the 
Woman’s Department of the National Civic Federation at Washington, Janu¬ 
ary, 1914. 


34 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


the guilty. The case against the whole system is succinctly 
stated in a recent report : 

Briefly summarized, the objection, then, to contract labor is that it 
is not only a form of slavery, but an unjustifiable form of slavery, 
because it is a delegated form in which the responsibility and au¬ 
thority are divorced. It is the exploitation of the helpless convict, 
not for the profit of the state, but for the profit of a private corpora¬ 
tion. It is the wrongful surrender and abandonment of the control 
and jurisdiction over the person of a prisoner either to a greater or 
less degree. It furnishes opportunity for convicts to communicate 
with the outside world in violation of the rules of the institution and 
to receive opium, morphine, cocaine and other forms of “ dope,” if 
the employes of the contractor are subject to improper influence or 
even unduly sympathetic. It furnishes opportunity for corruption 
between the contractors and prison officials and officers of the law, 
and subjects prison officials to criticism regardless of whether there 
is any foundation in fact for the charges. It tends to destroy dis¬ 
cipline, it impairs reformation and destroys hope on the part of the 
prisoner; it is injurious to the manufacturer employing free labor; 
it is unfair competition to free labor because it tends to destroy 
the living wage and lessens the opportunity for labor, and on the 
whole is uneconomically unsound. 1 

The contract-labor system, as such, is on the decline. Many 
states have seen its iniquities and have legislated it out of 
existence. The present problem is to find a suitable substitute. 
The work done must fulfil the following conditions: 

(1) It must not compete with outside free labor. 

(2) It must be of benefit to the convict himself. 

(3) It must be a benefit to the state. 

(4) It must provide the means to rehabilitate the convict in 
society after his release, or at least partially to sustain his 
family and dependents during his imprisonment. 

Turning to the other side of our problem, there is no need 
to advocate good roads. Their usefulness is universally re¬ 
cognized and their need generally acknowledged. Lord Mon¬ 
tague of Beaulieu says, “ Road traveling is of far more im¬ 
portance than 'all other forms of locomotion combined.” 2 Our 

1 Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Management of the 
Iowa Penitentiary at Fort Madison, 1912. 

2 International Road Congress, Paris, October, 1908. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


35 


country has fostered its industries by a protective tariff; has 
developed its railway communication by land grants; has ex¬ 
pended millions on its harbors, canals and inland waterways; 
is issuing bonds for reclamation and conservation to increase 
the productivity of its land; while its highways, the basic 
means of communication between industrial communities and 
the farm, have been left for local development Our roads, 
in comparison with our needs and resources for improvement, 
are the worst to be found in any modern civilized country. 

The advent of the motor vehicle brought the demand for 
more roads and the necessity for better roads to suit changed 
conditions. This fact has long since been self-evident, but the 
satisfactory financial solution of the road problem remains to 
be worked out in actual practise. Many conservative en¬ 
gineers and economists doubt the propriety of saddling unborn 
generations with our road bonds. Whether or not it is right 
to incur road obligations which do not become due until the 
roads they represent have long since worn out, it will always 
be economically desirable to secure roads as cheaply as is 
possible consistently with serviceability, and to pay for them 
as soon as possible after they are built or at least within the 
life of the improvement 

The road situation was well explained by ex-Congressman 
William Sulzer in his speech before the House of Representa¬ 
tives on July 12th, 1912: 

The plain people of the land are familiar with the truths of his¬ 
tory. They realize that often the difference between good roads and 
bad roads is the difference between profit and loss. Good roads have 
a money value far beyond our ordinary conception. Bad roads con¬ 
stitute our greatest drawback to internal development and material 
progress. Good roads mean prosperous farmers; bad roads mean 
abandoned farms, sparsely settled country districts and congested 
cities where the poor are destined to become poorer. 

Good roads mean more cultivated farms and cheaper food products 
for the toiler in the cities; bad roads mean poor transportation, lack 
of communication, high prices for the necessities of life, the loss of 
untold millions in wealth, and idle workmen seeking employment. 
Good roads will help those who cultivate the soil, and feed the mul¬ 
titudes; and whatever aids the producers and farmers of our coun¬ 
try, will increase our wealth and our greatness, and benefit all the 
people. 


36 


GOOD ROADS AND C 0 NVIC 1 LABOR 


We cannot destroy our farms without final decay. They are today 
the heart of our national life, and the chief source of our national 
greatness. Tear down every edifice in our cities and labor will re¬ 
build them, but abandon our farms and our cities will disappear for¬ 
ever. 

One of the crying needs of this country, especially the South and 
West, is good roads. The establishment of good roads would, in a 
measure, solve the question of the high price of food and increasing 
cost of living. By reducing the cost of transportation it would en¬ 
able the farmer to market his products at a lower price and at a 
larger profit at the same time. It would bring communities closer 
together and in touch with the centers of population, thereby facili¬ 
tating the commerce of ideas as well as of material products. 

When the agricultural production alone in the United States for 
the past eleven years totals $ 80 , 000 , 000 , 000 , a sum that staggers the 
imagination, and when we consider that it cost more to take this 
product from the farm to the railway station than from such station 
to the American and European markets, and when the saving in cost 
of moving this product of agriculture over good highways instead of 
bad would have built a million miles of good roads, the incalculable 
waste of bad roads in this country is shown to be of such enormous 
proportions as to demand immediate reformation and the exercise of 
the wisest and best statesmanship. 

But great as is the loss to transportation, material, industrial and 
farming interests, incomparably greater is the material loss to the 
women and children and the social life, a matter as important as 
civilization itself. The truth of the declaration of Charles Sumner, 
fifty years ago, that “ the two greatest forces for the advancement of 
civilization are the schoolmaster and good roads,” is emphasized by 
the experience of the intervening years and points to the wisdom of 
a union of educational, commercial, transportation and industrial in¬ 
terests of our country in aggressive action for good roads. 

Even the most ardent advocates of convict labor on public 
roads do not think it a solution for all the problems of prison 
labor and good roads. They do maintain that it has thus 
far been uniformly successful when tried under fair conditions. 
This contention they substantiate by citing the experience of 
several states. In order to make possible a comparative study 
upon a fair basis, the northern states have been selected for 
treatment in this discussion. 1 

1 The remaining states, whose problems differ from those of the northern 
states, are being treated in a supplemental thesis now in preparation under the 
Department of Highway Engineering of Columbia University and the National 
Committee on Prison Labor. 


USE OF CONVICT LAB OF IN THE NORTH 


37 

DEVELOPMENT OF CONVICT ROAD WORK IN NORTHERN STATES 

It has been said that no treatment of the road question is 
complete without some allusion to the old Roman highways. 
These ancient thoroughfares are today the wonder of modern 
engineers; and they were built by slaves, of whom a large 
number were “ servi poenae ,” (slaves of punishment), i. e. } 
convicts. 1 It might almost be said that we are only beginning 
to rediscover the best use for our prisoners, which Justinian 
knew fourteen hundred years ago. 

From the “servi poenae ” of the Romans and the serfs of 
the middle ages down to the convicts of today, society has al¬ 
ways had a class in involuntary servitude, and has been face 
to face with the problem of finding something for the prisoners 
to do. Lacking the mine and galley, banishment or hanging 
often solved the question. In later times, the government as¬ 
sumed all responsibility for the criminal class by building 
prisons and keeping law-breakers therein. America, in need 
of colonists, relieved the overcrowded English prisons until 
African labor became cheaper and more adaptable for our 
needs. Later, Australia formed an outlet for the rapidly in¬ 
creasing criminal class in England. In this country, as in the 
mother country, conditions became deplorable so that the state 
sold the labor of its convicts to greedy and unscrupulous 
private individuals, hoping thereby to build and improve its 
own institutions. 2 

It is from this form of slavery that we are only today 
turning. The convict has had little chance, nothing to look 
forward to, except despair. Now we are giving him an oppor¬ 
tunity to make good and a reward for well doing. Lincoln 
well expressed the difference when he said, “ Free labor has 
the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope.” By the 
“ honor system,” our criminal “ slaves ” are allowed compara¬ 
tive freedom and every inducement is offered them to work 
out their own salvation. Inasmuch as this feature is an 
essential one and not restricted in its present use to any one 

1 New American Encyclopedia, 1863, vol. XIV, p. 7 00 * 

2 Penal Servitude, by E. Stagg Whitin. 


38 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


locality or form of convict labor, although most highly de¬ 
veloped in the West, it may well first be explained in full. 

The unique characteristic of the honor system is the absence 
of armed guards. At the beginning a makeshift, a matter of 
economy, it has since become an essential. The expense of 
guarding convicts is heavy and offsets all the other savings of 
the system of production by convict labor. Moreover, the 
presence of arms has a depressing mental and moral effect on 
prisoners, lowering their spirits and working against efficiency, 
increasing their suspicion and their desire for shirking and 
escape. The honor system, when successful, is advantageous 
in two ways. It lessens cost, because the guarding expense 
is decreased and the output of the men increased; it develops 
manhood, because the men are happier and more responsive, a 
state making true reform possible. A certain measure of faith 
in the prisoners has always been shown toward “ trusties,” 
but the present features of the honor system far outdo anything 
of a similar character tried heretofore. Success depends upon 
two factors, viz., the personality and attitude of the superior, 
the warden of the penitentiary, with his subordinates, and the 
discreet choice of the prisoners for the work. The warden 
should be a student of human nature, open in manner and fair 
in dealing, capable of showing and begetting trust, and, more¬ 
over, should exemplify “ the square deal ” in all things. 

The prisoners are chosen after close and extended individual 
study, the governing factor being temperament and capacity 
for responsibility rather than nature of the crime and length 
of sentence. It is not claimed that all prisoners receive benefit 
from the honor system. The aim is, in every case, to do the 
man good. To this end, his degree of liberty is dependent on 
his estimated fortitude against the temptation to break his 
word. Road work should be the type of labor granted to the 
highest class of convict and should be the reward of good con¬ 
duct and honest endeavor in less desirable employment. It 
should be attended with special privileges, such as commuta¬ 
tion of sentence and bonus in wage, which will tend toward 
efficiency and good deportment. 

The procedure is usually as follows: The honor system 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


39 


being known and the prisoner having expressed his willing¬ 
ness to try it (acceptance should be voluntary), the warden 
gives him a heart-to-heart talk on manhood, expresses his 
faith in him, and tells him he is about to get a chance to make 
good. The man promises that he will faithfully comply with 
all the rules of the camp, that he will not attempt to escape, 
and that he will do his utmost to prevent other prisoners from 
escaping. He is then committed to the road gang. 1 Such is 
the well deserved popularity of the honor system in road work 
among the convicts themselves that a prisoner’s friends and 
relatives often voluntarily guarantee his good behavior, and 
promise if possible to prevent his escape. 

In operation, the highway camp can hardly be distinguished 
from that of free laborers. There are no stripes; khaki or 
blue is the uniform. Nominally, there are guards, but their 
real function is superintendence. Eight or ten hours’ work, 
as the law allows, and three square meals, is the daily routine. 
Apart from this, the prisoner’s time is his own, usually until 
nine o’clock, when lights are extinguished. The camp may 
be of tents or temporary wooden structures, as need and length 
of stay determine, without fence or barrier, except possibly of 
barb wire, in self-defense. The night guard only, often a 
convict, as in Colorado, 2 is allowed a gun for protection, and 
sometimes not even that. In a camp of thirty to fifty men, the 
ordinary number, usually three guards, two for day and one 
for night, are sufficient, and hence the combined cost of super¬ 
intendence and guarding is little higher than the supervision 
of free labor. 

Other privileges beside that of freedom are often accorded. 
Almost always a commutation of sentence is made, varying 
from five to ten or even to thirty days for every month. This 
“ good time,” being cumulative, is deducted from the regular 
sentence, or from the minimum, in the case of an indetermin¬ 
ate one, so that under favorable conditions, six or eight months 
only for every year’s sentence need be served. Of all favors, 

1 Governor Shafroth, of Colorado, in Kansas City Star, May 22, 1911. 

2 San Antonio {Tex.) Daily Express , November 25, 1911, letter from Gov¬ 
ernor Shafroth, of Colorado. 


40 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


this is the most appreciated, as, under the honor system, the 
men feel their humiliation more keenly and prize their com¬ 
plete freedom more highly. A small amount of money each 
week, for tobacco or other luxuries, the opportunity to write 
home, distinctive features of attire as a mark of honor, music 
and outdoor sports after work,—these all add to the attractive¬ 
ness of the road camp over other forms of imprisonment. 

The position of road superintendent is no easy or enviable 
one. The coordination of the work of men of different habits, 
temperaments, ideals and stations of life, demands the utmost 
of tact, persistence, patience and care. 1 To these men, in 
direct charge, is largely due the moral and financial success 
of the experiment. 

While the saving in money has been considerable, as noted 
later, this is not the most important saving; the honor system 
saves men. It is hard to realize that life-prisoners are left 
hundreds of miles from the prisons without guards, but such 
is the case. The most hardened criminals, dangerous men, 
and often the worst behaved under surveillance, are said to be 
the very best workers and to cause the least trouble on the 
road. 2 A criminal often is a good man gone wrong, a victim 
of misfortune, a person of great capabilities misdirected. The 
“ square deal,” here shown, simply attempts to change his 
goal in life, to redirect his misapplied energies, and to restore 
his faith in mankind. A large measure of the success achieved 
is due to a convict’s temperament, a responsiveness to kind and 
fair treatment, such as any free person would show, but in his 
case more appreciated because of its unusualness; and most 
of all, it is a result of a peculiar sense of honor, exemplified 
by the rule of the underworld, “ To be square with a pal is 
the only law I know.” Warden Tynan of Colorado says, 
“ You can trust them better than outside men, because of a 
peculiar honor. They are loyal because honest, not through 
fear, if they are treated honestly.” One of the camp rules, 
“ I am my brother’s keeper,” is taken literally by putting two 

1 Good Roads, June 26, 1913, p. 722. 

2 Biennial report of Warden Tynan of Colorado Penientiary for period end¬ 
ing November 30, 1910. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


41 


men in a room together, each partially responsible for the 
other. 1 

One or two typical examples show the results. In Colorado, 
under the honor system, for the biennial period ending No¬ 
vember 30, 1910, the percentage of successful escapes was re¬ 
duced to twenty-four per cent from sixty-four per cent. 2 This 
showing must be credited largely to the alertness of the con¬ 
victs in keeping their fellow-prisoners from escaping. In 
Oregon, after the recapture of an escaped inmate at Governor 
West’s personal expense, the other prisoners requested that 
they be allowed to pay all costs out of their own bonus money, 
alleging that the offender had “ double-crossed ” them by cast¬ 
ing suspicion on the system and the individual prisoners. 
From Colorado comes the account of an escaped prisoner 
voluntarily offering to come back to complete his sentence. 
The prison officials doubted the sincerity of this proposal; but 
ten minutes before time for the gates to be closed, the man put 
in his appearance. He admitted that it was not the escaping 
that worried him, but the consciousness of having broken his 
solemn oath. He paid his own railroad fare back to the 
prison. 3 

Not all states favor this method. Press reports 4 state that 
in Utah it was given a trial and that with insufficient guards 
several escapes occurred. Thereupon this so-called “ honor 
system ” was voted unsuccessful. This is only what might 
have been expected. If it is necessary to have armed guards, 
have enough of them; if not, do away with them altogether. 

Records show no concerted efforts on the part of convicts 
to escape from camps where the honor system is real. Further 
than that, there is positive evidence of a great reduction in the 
number of attempts over the number under the old system. 
In Colorado, during four years, with over eighteen hundred 
convicts, there was less than one per cent who broke faith, 5 

1 Better Roads, October, 1912, article by Charles R. McLain. 

2 Colorado State Prison report for biennial period ending June 30, 1910. 

3 Kansas City Star , May 22, 1911. 

4 Salt Lake City News , December 21, 1912. 

5 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March 
I 9 i 3 > P- 59 - 


42 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


and the number is decreasing. In Arizona, during eight 
months, of one hundred and eighty convicts, American and 
Mexican, there were five escapes, six other attempts, and no 
deaths; while during the previous six months, under the 
former system, there were two escapes, two other attempts, 
and seven deaths. Thus it is seen that the placing of convicts 
on honor has not resulted in wholesale escapes, as was pre¬ 
dicted. In Oregon, during 1911, there were on an average 
about one hundred men employed in crushing stone, and of 
these only one attempted to escape; he was quickly recaptured. 1 
In Nevada, the honor system has been used for the last two 
years, and, according to the state prison report, of eight at¬ 
tempted escapes, five proved unsuccessful; no data as to the 
total number of men are given. 2 3 In New Mexico, the experi¬ 
ment of dispensing with armed guards has proved successful. b 
Of five hundred convicts on honor in Oregon during fourteen 
months, only three succeeded in making their escape; in all, 
fifteen tried to gain their freedom, but of this number, nine 
returned of their own accord, and three were recaptured. 4 

Even in the East, efforts to place convicts on their honor 
have met with success. For several years, Sheriff Frank H. 
Tracy of Washington County (Montpelier), Vt., has allowed 
his prisoners to work outside the jail, the convicts returning 
each night. They pay the state one dollar a day for their 
keep, the rest of the money they earn (about seventy-five cents) 
being retained for their own use. During the first four years, 
with eight hundred prisoners, there were but two attempted 
escapes. Both from the standpoint of the reformation of the 
convict, and of financial gain to the state, the method met 
with favorable results. 5 New York’s newest prison, at Great 
Meadow, is without walls. The utmost liberty and wide 
privileges are allowed. A few of the guards carry guns, 
but weapons are considered useless; for, in a year, the only 

1 Good Roads Year Book, 1912, pp. 293-4. 

2 Biennial Report of State Prison, 1911-12, p. 8. 

3 Annual Report of State Prison Warden, November 30, 1912. 

4 Tulsa ( Okla .) World, May 6, 1912. 5 Atlantic Monthly, August, 1911. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


43 


two escapes were by men not ordinarily allowed outside the 
prison. 1 There were two hundred and sixty-two convicts at 
Great Meadow during 1911. 

Form the above statements, which are representative of con¬ 
ditions wherever the honor system is in vogue, it is evident 
that this method of handling prisoners is a decided success, 
and the reason for its approval among keepers and convicts 
alike is apparent. 

WASHINGTON 

For the four years preceding the spring of 1911, convicts 
w r ere used in road construction in Washington. Beginning 
in 1909, convicts were used to run state rock-crushing quarries, 
furnishing rock for state and county roads. Since 1911, the 
convicts have been used in five large rock-crushing quarries. 

The highway work is of interest, as it was not under the 
honor system. Balls, chains and stripes were not used, but 
the men were housed within a prison stockade, watched by 
armed guards day and night. The authorities were careful 
to provide plenty of good food and clothing. Some of the 
stockades were large enough for eighty-four men, and were 
made collapsible for easy removal. The usual number of men 
in a camp was fifty or a hundred—“ first-termers ” as a rule. 
At first, to promote order and efficiency, the camp superinten¬ 
dents and highway officials had power to give commutation 
of time for good conduct, but, as this method was not success¬ 
ful, the men were sent with a definite assignment of one year, 
with ten days per month commutation. Men eligible for 
employment on the roads were those who had served their 
minimum sentence, if indeterminate, and second-termers not 
under the indeterminate act. In 1910, during the time that 
392 male prisoners were sent out, 356 were pardoned from the 
camps, so that the population of the camps must have been 
fairly uniform. The state jute mill was closed in the summer 
of 1910 to give more men for the road work, about two hun¬ 
dred being so employed on the highways and in quarries. 

The work was successful, especially in the case of heavy rock 


1 New York Times, Sunday, December 29, 1912. 


44 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


work. Presumably, this was because a greater number of men 
could be worked close together, reducing the expense of 
guarding. The men were healthy and enjoyed the work, but 
the percentage of escapes was high. From May 1909 to 
September 1910, there was a total of 501 sent to the camps, 
and of these, thirty-five escaped; probably the average number 
working at one time was considerably less than 500; in Octo¬ 
ber 1910 there were 241. This poor showing as regards 
escapes is attributed to the fact that chances were being taken 
with hardened criminals. It is claimed, however, that under 
the honor system especial success can be attained with such 
prisoners. 

Upon the failure of the 1911 legislature to appropriate funds 
for the continuance of road work, it was stopped about April 
of that year. At that time, there were about two hundred men 
on the roads and one hundred in the quarries. Since then, 
many convicts have been employed in the state quarries, fur¬ 
nishing crushed stone at nominal prices to private parties, 
mostly for road construction. Prisoners are still kept under 
armed guard and are housed in stockades. 

As to efficiency, the men are credited with one-third more 
than free labor. This is due not to compulsion, but rather to 
fear of being taken back to the penitentiary. The authorities 
are said to favor resumption of road work, and it is hoped 
that the work may be continued. 

OREGON 

Commencing early in 1904 and continuing until 1908, state 
convicts were used on the roads of Marion County, Oregon, 
the county in which the state penitentiary is located. On this 
work, which was provided for by a special act of the legis¬ 
lature, only as many convicts were employed as one superin¬ 
tendent could conveniently handle. The work of the convicts 
was supplemented by that of residents of the vicinity. On the 
whole, the experiment was considered successful. 

This work was recommenced in Marion County, under the 
honor system, in January 1911, the new governor (Oswald 
West) overcoming the lack of suitable legislation by taking 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


45 


the prison situation into his own hands. Although a bill for 
convict labor on roads was defeated in the state legislature in 
February 1911, the agitation continued during the following 
spring and summer, and in September the governor offered 
state convicts for use on the road from Medford, Oregon, to 
the Crater Lake National Park. This work was the beginning 
of the construction of state highways by state prisoners. Honor 
road camp no. 1 was established and work commenced No¬ 
vember 1, 1911. Since then, the work has been continued and 
developed along similar lines in other parts of the state. 

The honor system is used in its most extreme form; there 
are no guards, chains or stripes; one man from the county is 
given jurisdiction over the camp, similar to that of the warden 
inside the prison; an engineer directs the work, but often one 
of the prisoners acts as foreman. The state provides the cloth¬ 
ing which the men wear when they begin the work, but the 
county supplies further articles, such as shoes, from time to 
time, as they are needed. The county pays the railroad fare 
from the penitentiary, boards the men, furnishes all material, 
and, in addition, pays twenty-five cents a day as wages to each 
prisoner. During the first six months of honor work, of one 
hundred and fifty men, only three broke their word and at¬ 
tempted to escape. During a similar period, two years before, 
ten men, all under heavy guard, escaped from inside the prison 
walls, while shortly afterwards, in an attempt to work the 
men outside, eighteen got away; still later, six escaped at one 
time, of whom two were killed before all were recaptured. 
Comparison of these facts does much to indicate the efficiency 
of the honor system. 

In 1911 the prisoners were employed almost entirely in 
quarrying and crushing stone, in preparation for the next 
year’s work. During the past year, one of the principal 
pieces of work has been the state road from Hood River to¬ 
ward Portland, along the south side of the Columbia River. 
This road will give an outlet to all other branches from the 
back country, and will be of inestimable benefit to that part 
of the state. Such has been the success of the experiment 
that at the last election an initiative bill was passed provid- 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


46 

ing for road work by state and county prisoners, thus vindi¬ 
cating the whole system, in spite of much previous adverse 
criticism. 

CALIFORNIA 

The laws of California do not permit state convicts to labor 
on roads, except within six miles of San Quentin prison. An 
average of about twenty-five men was employed in this way 
during 1912, under a foreman and two armed guards. This 
work is considered healthful and otherwise beneficial to the 
prisoners, and their labor compares favorably with that of 
free laborers. 

For about the last fifteen years, the state has employed its 
convicts at rock-crushing in Folsom Prison, turning out in all 
about 70,000 tons of rock. According to the state comptrol¬ 
ler’s report (1910), the comparative cost of rock-crushing is 
high, due to inferior equipment and the low price obtained 
for the output. He contends that private companies in the 
vicinity are selling much larger quantities at higher rates. 
But Folsom Prison cannot sell its rock on the open market. 
The prison report for the same date (1910) gives the net 
profit for the year as ten cents per ton, against an average of 
only seven cents per ton for the whole fourteen years. Less 
than one hundred prisoners are employed in the rock-crushing. 
The industry is not considered important enough to warrant a 
new plant to replace the present one. 

The question of state convicts for road construction came up 
during March 1911, in the shape of a bill authorizing such 
action. It was rejected by the legislature largely owing to 
the opposition of organized labor. 

NEVADA 

For the past two years, barring the month of May 1912, 
when a change took place in the state prison administration, 
Nevada convicts have been employed on state roads. They 
are prohibited from building bridges and culverts, in order to 
protect skilled outside labor. The prisoners are detailed to 
this work upon request of the county commissioners, the cost 
of maintenance being equally divided between state and 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


47 


county. The state is allowed, out of the prison appropriation, 
fifty cents a day per man for keep while on the road, which 
sum, although only one-third the actual cost, is more than 
would be necessary to maintain prisoners in the penitentiary. 
In addition, the convicts receive a wage of twenty-five cents 
a day, and extra commutation of ten days a month. 

Work has been almost wholly in Ormsby and Washoe 
Counties, and, during the latter half of 1912, about thirty 
prisoners were at work. An average of thirty-seven were em¬ 
ployed in this way during 1911-12. These men, together 
with others on the farm, in all about forty per cent of the 
total prison population, which averaged one hundred and fifty- 
five, are on their honor. No authoritative statements as to 
the success of the work or probability of its continuance are 
available. 


ARIZONA 

During the year 1911, no convicts were used in road-build¬ 
ing in Arizona, but commencing in June, they were employed 
at Tempe in constructing a 1500-foot reinforced concrete arch¬ 
bridge across the Salt River. In all, about three hundred and 
fifty men were at work, exclusive of free laborers, the fore¬ 
man and a few carpenters. The prisoners were housed in a 
stockade under guard. They worked eight hours as a rule, and 
a credit of two days on the sentence was given for each day 
worked. The efficiency was estimated at about two-thirds that 
of free labor. This low efficiency was attributed to the fact 
that sixty-five per cent of the prisoners were inexperienced 
Mexicans. However, the prisoners were very healthy and 
were better contented than when in jail. During 1912 this 
bridge work was continued, and it has recently (in 1913) been 
completed. 

In addition, there has been some state highway construction 
along other lines. Part of this work was on a road through 
the mountains to connect the great copper mines at Ray with 
the city of Globe. The rest of the work consisted of the 
construction of thirty-five miles of state highway to connect 
the town of Florence with the capital city, Phoenix. 


48 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


The honor system is very similar to that of Oregon. While 
in prison, the convict stands on his record. Stripes are 
abolished, and otherwise the authorities treat the convict much 
like a free man. The convicts wear gray suits, are allowed 
an unlimited incoming and outgoing daily letter mail, and 
are given the privilege of the daily newspapers. Many of the 
foremost papers in the country are subscribed for by the state 
for the reading-room, and all the popular magazines are taken 
by the prison authorities for the use of all the prisoners. 
Musical and literary societies exist, also a mutual improvement 
league, formed and officered by inmates for the mutual benefit 
of all the prisoners. As prisoners prove themselves worthy of 
trust, greater freedom and more responsibilities are accorded 
them. 

Finally, after successful trial, they are made honor men on 
road work, and are absolutely without guard. No firearms 
are allowed in the honor camps. One day’s work, eight hours, 
counts for two days off the sentence. After work is done and 
on Sundays, a prisoner’s time is his own. It has been found 
advisable to separate Mexican from American prisoners. In 
one instance, the foremen over both gangs were men serving 
life and twenty-year sentences. There are now two men 
acting as watchmen in the temporarily abandoned camp in a 
very isolated spot in the Pinal Mountains, who are both life- 
termers. As a rule, the only civilian in camp is the engineer 
who directs the construction. 

While there have been some objections to the system, it 
now appears to be firmly established. 

The saving to the taxpayers on labor in the construction 
of the thirty-five miles of completed highway between the 
towns of Florence and Higley, the three miles of the Globe- 
Ray highway which has been completed, the two miles of 
sewer at Florence and the bridge across the Salt River at 
Tempe, which is now under construction, is figured at $45,858. 
This represents 30,572 days’ actual service rendered, figured 
at a minimum wage of $1.50 per day per man. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


49 


NEW MEXICO 

New Mexico claims the distinction of being the first state 
to adopt the honor system, and successfully work prisoners 
on public highways by this means, the “ honor system ” in this 
instance taking the form of reduction of time for good be¬ 
havior, in addition to the reduction ordinarily allowed. The 
working of prisoners on state roads was first authorized by an 
act of 1903, which provided that they be employed on a road 
between Santa Fe and Las Vegas. Road construction has been 
continued ever since that time. For the past three years, four 
camps of about thirty convicts each have been employed on 
roads, some free laborers recruited from the vicinity working 
with the convicts. In 1912, an average of seventy-four pris¬ 
oners were employed on the roads, and of them, twenty-three 
were in Bernalillo County. The expectation is that the con¬ 
vict force can be increased to about one hundred in the 
near future. 

The selection of prisoners for work in road camps is not 
confined to short-termers alone. The sentences of the pris¬ 
oners in road camps range from one year to life. The super¬ 
intendent has a personal talk with each prisoner selected for 
road work, and the prisoner must promise on his word of honor 
that he will obey the rules and make no attempt to escape. 
Only a small percentage prove unfaithful to their promise. 
In addition to the reduction of time for good conduct, ten 
days per month may be earned on road work. The division 
of cost between state and county is as follows: the state fur¬ 
nishes prisoners with clothing and supervision; the county 
provides equipment and all camp expenses. The convicts 
receive no wage. 

Road work is declared to be very beneficial, as to both 
health and character. The efficiency of the labor has been 
greatly increased by the abolition of armed guards, and is now 
equal to free labor if properly handled. Continuation of the 
system under present methods is assured. 

Since 1909, all prison sentences in New Mexico have been 
indeterminate. Having served his minimum sentence with- 


50 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


out infraction of the rules of the penitentiary, the prisoner is 
paroled, after suitable employment has first been secured for 
him with some respectable and responsible person. He is re¬ 
quired to report monthly, the report setting forth the number 
of days under pay, number of days idle, and the reason there¬ 
for, amount on hand the first of the month, amount earned dur¬ 
ing the month, and expenditures. 

UTAH 

Contract convict labor is prohibited by the constitution of 
Utah. The bill for use of prisoners on public roads was in¬ 
troduced in January 1911, and passed in March. Actual work 
started in June of the same year and has since been continued. 

As noted before, a modification of the honor system, with 
few guards, was tried unsuccessfully, so practise reverted to 
the use of armed guards in camps. The majority of the con¬ 
victs employed on road work are long-term prisoners. In one 
case, they were housed in a stockade, equipped with arc lights, 
the men having individual beds and khaki uniforms. Each 
guard is held responsible for ten prisoners. The state provides 
guards, clothing and tools. Extra commutation of ten days 
per month is given for good conduct. 

The plan was considered extremely successful during 1911 
and 1912. During the year just passed, about fifty long-term 
prisoners have been in use on state roads. For these there are 
eight armed guards. Most of the work (about twenty-nine 
miles in all) has been in Washington and Davis counties, for 
which costs will be given later. Construction is under the 
direction of state road engineers. The convicts are said to 
accomplish as much as ordinary laborers; yet the cost, on ac¬ 
count of the expense of guarding, must be greater than under 
the honor system. Because of the success of the system, most 
of the counties desire the assistance of convicts in building 
their roads, and the continuance of the system seems assured. 

COLORADO 

Colorado, in extent of development of convict road work, 
takes precedence over all other western states. Although pro- 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


51 


vided for by law as far back as 1905, a start was not made 
until 1908, and the bulk of the progress has been during the' 
present prison administration, since 1909, under Warden 
Thomas J. Tynan. 

The law provides that upon request of a majority of a 
county’s road commissioners, the warden of the state peniten¬ 
tiary at Canon City may, at his discretion, allow a squad of 
convicts with competent overseers to do road work in that 
county. The state furnishes clothing—blue or khaki—while 
the county provides for all feeding and housing of men and 
teams, for tools, materials and additional charges of guarding. 
Construction work is under the supervision of the warden or 
his proper representative, the state highway department per¬ 
forming the engineering service. 

Convict road work started in May 1908, under armed 
guards. About April 1909, the honor system was introduced, 
and is still in favor. During 1909 and 1910, there were about 
100 convicts working on an average. In 1911 this number 
was increased to about 200, and toward the end of the year to 
300. At present, fifty per cent of the penitentiary inmates 
are at work outside on the roads or on a farm adjoining the 
prison, and the warden estimates that seventy-five per cent of 
ordinary prison inmates could be so used. During the bien¬ 
nial period ending November 30, 1910, about fifty miles of 
roadway was constructed, and in the succeeding period ending 
November 30, 1912, about 300 miles, the increase being due 
to added numbers, greater efficiency, and better working con¬ 
ditions. One of the most noted pieces of roadwork was ac¬ 
complished on the now famous skyline drive, extending some 
six or eight miles from Canon City along the crest of a “ hog¬ 
back,” and almost overlooking the Royal Gorge of the 
Arkansas. This and other roads, notably the new Santa Fe 
trail, have opened up some of the scenic wonders of the state. 

A real honor system is in vogue; and to this the success of 
the work is largely credited. Camps of from thirty to fifty 
men usually, or even as many as one hundred, are under one 
or two overseers, with subordinates, and such camps have been 
located even as far as three hundred miles from the peniten- 


52 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


tiary. All vestiges of physical restraint—guns, stripes and 
stockades—are absent. The convicts themselves prefer to do 
this kind of work rather than any other. As an extra induce¬ 
ment, there is given a regular commutation of sentence amount¬ 
ing to as much as ten days per month, and, in addition, a 
month further reduction for the first year’s road work, two 
months for the second, and so on to a maximum of six months. 
The penalty for breaking faith is the return of the convict to 
prison, and loss of all credits. 

The health of the men is considered well-nigh perfect. 
Work is continued the year round, new detachments of con¬ 
victs being continually sent out to make up for those who are 
paroled from camps. It is estimated that the men are fully 
as capable and efficient as free labor. The authorities con¬ 
sider convict road work a success in every way, and anticipate 
its continuance and enlargement. 

MONTANA 

The contract system for convict labor in the state peniten¬ 
tiary was abolished in Montana in June 1908. To provide 
some employment for the prisoners and to relieve congestion 
in the buildings, which were so overcrowded that one-quarter 
of the inmates had to be housed outside the walls, several plans 
were inaugurated during the spring of 1910, among them that 
of using convicts on public roads. This highway work has 
been continued since that time. 

In the two and one-half years the honor system has been 
practised, results satisfactory from the standpoints of refor¬ 
mation and of public economy have been effected. An allow¬ 
ance of fifty cents per convict per day is made by the state to 
cover maintenance, guards and other expenses; the counties 
pay for equipment, materials and all excess costs over that 
met by the state. Firearms are not allowed in the camps. 
For squads of from fifty to one hundred men, three guards, 
two for day and one for night, provide the only surveillance, 
which partakes in character more of the nature of super¬ 
vision of work. The eight-hour day is in vogue. There is 
no artificial restraint. Clothing is of cadet blue, the food is 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


53 


of good quality, and the shelter is under tents. In addition 
to the “ good time ” allowed by law, there is an extra com¬ 
mutation of ten days for each month’s work. 

In spite of the out-of-date machinery used, a remarkable 
showing for the work has been made; this is attributed to the 
vigor and enthusiasm of the workers. Up to May 1912 about 
forty-eight miles of road had been built, much of it through 
solid rock. The importance of some of this work is apparent 
from the fact that in one case road distances between important 
points were shortened forty miles by means of seven miles of 
difficult construction; and in another, sixty miles were elimin¬ 
ated by building thirteen. 

The number of men employed has varied, usually being 
about one-third of the total number in the penitentiary. In 
1913 the force numbered 225. During the first two years, the 
percentage of escapes averaged less than one per cent—last 
year, the loss was six. Ninety-five per cent of the paroled 
prisoners make good, a much larger proportion than in most 
states. Repeated requests by counties for the road-making 
convicts indicate the favor in which the whole system is held. 
At present, an effort is being made to invoke state aid for 
counties in order to provide for the continuance of convict 
road work under the honor system. 

OTHER WESTERN STATES 

East of Colorado, various states are moving to inaugurate a 
system of convict labor on public highways. Some little work 
has been done in Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Missouri and 
Iowa, which may now be briefly described. 

In Kansas, the law allows road construction by penintentiary 
inmates, but little has been done under this provision, because 
the prisoners are already so advantageously employed in 
other state industries. The output of the prison mine and 
brick yard is used for the various state institutions, while the 
products of the farm help feed the prisoners. Some income 
is realized from the twine plant. Previous to 1911 nine miles 
of road had been built, and since then about two miles of 
macadam have been added. Mention is also made of three 


54 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


and one-half miles of brick road from Lansing to Leaven¬ 
worth, built by about thirty convicts on the honor system, and 
also the road from Kansas City to Lansing, on which about 
twenty-five prisoners were worked during 1912. The present 
intention is to continue prisoners in the twine factory and the 
brick yard, in the mines and on the highways, the last being 
the goal to be earned by good conduct. It is also intended to 
give two-thirds of the prisoner’s earnings to the state, and 
one-third to his family. Of 850 men in the state penitentiary, 
about one hundred could be trusted without guards under the 
honor system. Twenty-six men have been so used during the 
last year. 

For some time, state convicts in Oklahoma have been used 
in stone quarries, and during 1911 county prisoners also 
were used in some districts. In August 1911, when a plan 
was on foot to utilize the prison population in building a 
cross-state road from Kansas to Texas, the governor offered 
to exercise his pardoning power in giving one day in four 
off their sentences for prisoners so employed, although the 
state itself could not commute the sentences in this manner. 
During 1912 many prisoners were used on roads near the 
penitentiary at McAlester, living in tents, and getting supplies 
direct from the prison. In the fall the force amounted to 150 
men, under one officer (white) and with a prisoner as watch¬ 
man at night. There were no armed guards, and only one 
escape was recorded. Little attempt at scientific road work 
was made, as there was no engineer. The main purpose was 
to keep the workers busy. 

The Minnesota law authorizes the crushing of stone at the 
state reformatory at St. Cloud, for use by the counties, on 
payment of the transportation charges. During the biennium 
just finished 6248 cubic yards were delivered for state roads, 
at 25 cents a yard, although to outside buyers from $1 to $2 
per yard was charged according to the grade. 

IOWA 

In Iowa in 1912 a special committee was appointed to in¬ 
vestigate the management of the penitentiary at Fort Madison, 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


55 

which committee recommended “ that under revised laws, from 
50 to 75 state prisoners could be profitably employed on the 
highways; that they should be carefully chosen by the warden 
from those who have served the longer part of their term, 
such selection being conditioned on satisfactory prison record, 
good habits and willingness to do road work; that they should 
be placed on their honor and receive a wage, but not be al¬ 
lowed the use of intoxicants nor association with free 
citizens.” 1 Prior to this time the only road work was the 
preparation of material, but as the result of the investigation 
a statute was enacted to the following effect: 

Any able-bodied male prisoner may work on the roads un¬ 
less his character or disposition make probable his attempt to 
escape or unless he is likely to be an ungovernable prisoner or 
to violate any of the laws of the state while engaged in such 
work or unless his health would be impaired by such labor. 
No prisoner who is opposed to working upon the highways 
shall be required to do so. The prisoners are at all times un¬ 
der the jurisdiction of the warden of the institution, even when 
performing service under the honor system, the warden de¬ 
signating guards, officers and agents to direct and supervise 
such prisoners. The highway department shall supervise the 
work, but may cooperate with the boards of supervisers and 
local officials in the performance of the work. The board of 
control and the warden shall prescribe the condition and 
manner of keeping and caring for the prisoners while away 
from the institution. Whenever a county board of supervisers 
or other local officials desire to use prisoners upon the highway 
within their jurisdictions, they may apply to the state high¬ 
way commission, specifying the number of men desired, the 
character of work and the amount they are willing to pay for 
the labor. If the highway commission can supervise the work 
and believe the prisoners can be safely and advantageously 
employed at said place, it shall submit the matter to the board 
of control. The board of control and the warden shall ar- 

1 Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the General Manage¬ 
ment of the Iowa Penitentiary at Fort Madison, 1912, pp. 35-37. 


56 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


range details with the local officials, including the compensa¬ 
tion to be paid the state for the use of such prisoners. Local 
officials authorized to make road improvements are permitted 
to employ prisoners and to pay for such services from any 
funds available for road or bridge work, whenever in their 
judgment such prisoners may be employed advantageously. 
The board of control is authorized to allow prisoners working 
upon the highways of the state such part of their earnings as 
the board shall deem just and equitable over and above the 
cost of maintenance of such prisoners and may deduct a part of 
such earnings and forward direct to families or persons de¬ 
pendent upon such prisoners for support. The board of control 
and warden may also provide for the deposit of earnings of 
such prisoners in a bank or banks to be given said prisoners 
upon release, except such part as may be allowed for current 
expenses. Prisoners working upon the highways shall not 
be required or permitted to work in clothing which shall make 
them look ridiculous or unduly conspicuous. 

Although but few months have elapsed since the passage 
of the statute, Attorney General George Cosson, in a letter to 
the National Committee on Prison Labor in November 1913, 
reports: 

We have a little prison camp doing work near the state agricultural 
college at Ames under the supervision of the highway commission. 
These men are on the honor system. We will send you if possible some 
photographs of the camp. The contract provides that the men shall 
receive two dollars per day and if it develops that they do the equiva¬ 
lent amount of work performed by free labor, they shall receive $ 2.50 
per day. This beats working under the contract system at sixty cents 
per day or eighty cents as the men at Anamosa receive. 

Up to date the money, in addition to paying their maintenance, has 
been funded for the use of the prisoners. We had one escape by a 
young fellow who was not quite right in his head. He was recap¬ 
tured and there is some suggestion of sending him to the institution 
for feeble minded. It was a mistake to put the fellow on the job. 
Aside from that there have been no escapes at all and the men have 
been very well contented. They are working under almost normal 
conditions except of course that they are kept in their camps at night 
and not permitted to mingle with free citizens. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


57 


As I said before, they are paying their own maintenance, and a 
very substantial amount will still be left for themselves and families. 

ILLINOIS 

Illinois was a pioneer among the northern states in em¬ 
ploying its convicts on public works. Inasmuch as sentiment 
has always been against the exposure of prisoners to the public 
view, they have been used only in stone crushing within the 
penitentiaries at Chester and Joliet, as authorized by law in 
1905. Since that time stone has been crushed sufficient to 
cover about 400 miles of road. The material is furnished 
free at the penitentiaries, the townships paying the freight 
charges. These charges, although less than the regular rate, 
still limit the usefulness of the stone on account of the expense 
of carrying it to more distant districts. 

The convict force employed at the Chester penitentiary, 
being larger than at Joliet, produces cut stone and fertilizer 
(pulverized limestone) as well as crushed rock. At the Joliet 
penitentiary, where only stone for the road work is crushed, 
the limit of capacity has been reached, except in case of a 
car shortage, which frequently occurs. Here the machinery 
is the controlling factor. The combined output of crushed 
rock by both penitentiaries for the last five years has been as 
follows: 1908, 120,240 cu. yds.; 1909, 136,789 cu. yds.; 1910, 
103,309 cu. yds.; 1911, 152,165 cu. yds.; 1912, 154,032 cu. yds. 

Although the amounts of stone crushed have thus been suc¬ 
cessfully increased, the demand has always exceeded the sup¬ 
ply. Not all the prisoners are physically fit for this work and 
those who are able to do it perform only one-third the amount 
that free laborers would. 

Continuation of this work is assured by its present success. 
In addition, the new governor 1 has put himself on record as 
in favor of convict labor in actual road construction under 
the honor system as in Colorado. 

MICHIGAN 

The Michigan laws of 1911 provide that state convicts may 


1 Gov. E. F. Dunne. Inaugural address, Jan. 13, 1913. 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


58 

be employed on the public roads or in the quarries of the 
county which bids highest for their services. If guarding is 
necessary, its cost is borne by the prison authorities, but other 
expenses, as transportation, equipment and subsistence, are 
met by the county. No state prisoners have ever been used 
under this act, but county convicts, especially in Kalamazoo 
County, have been so employed with great success. 

Under this system, it was predicted by the originator, Mr. 
William M. Bryant, chairman of the county road commission, 
that crime could be reduced by half and the tramp nuisance 
eliminated; this has been accomplished. Work started in the 
fall of 1909. At first the men were boarded by a nearby 
farmer and sheltered in a rented house. In six weeks the 
jail attendance fell off to such a marked degree that two 
gangs of 35 to 40 each were reduced to one gang of only 
2 prisoners. During the first five months the decrease in 
the number of vagrants amounted to over 2300. In one 
month only 1 vagrant was arrested, and for six months the 
total arrests numbered only 10. The difficulty with this work 
has been the lack of prisoners, reinforcement by free labor 
being necessary to make up a single gang. As all are short¬ 
term prisoners, no guards are necessary. The men are on 
their honor, and similar in appearance to free laborers. As 
a reward, $1.50 per week is allowed for satisfactory work. 
The success of the Kalamazoo system has induced other coun¬ 
ties to adopt similar methods. 

OHIO 

Ohio’s only experiment in employing convict labor in actual 
highway construction was made in the summer of 1912 on a 
road south of Columbus under the direction of the state high¬ 
way department. In this work from 17 to 25 colored convicts 
were employed, conveyed seven miles from the penitentiary to 
the work and back by an auto truck which during the re- 
mander of the day was otherwise used. The road was built of 
brick, by various methods, so that a representative perform¬ 
ance by the prisoners was difficult, on account of the frequent 
change of operations, but where there was a fair chance, in- 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


59 


telligent and efficient work resulted. One unarmed guard ac¬ 
companied the men, directing the work. Even though the 
gang stretched out at times for half a mile along the road, 
no attempt at escape occurred. All the men, of whom several 
were life termers, were on their honor. Under an arrange¬ 
ment with the state board of administration, the highway de¬ 
partment paid $i per day for the services of each convict, 
none of which was credited to the prisoners. 

Public sentiment is now in favor of paying a wage, and a 
bill is pending providing for an allowance of a daily wage for 
each convict. Making due allowance for the handicaps under 
which the work was conducted, the results have caused wide¬ 
spread satisfaction, so that the authorities favor working all 
the prisoners except the most dangerous. A bill has been 
brought before the legislature providing for this development, 
and it is said to have strong support from the governor. 

There has also been some stone crushing by state prisoners, 
as provided by law in 1911. During the past year, 33 con¬ 
victs have been kept busy at the state quarry, all under the 
honor system. The results are highly satisfactory from the 
standpoint of the moral effect on the men. Both highway 
construction and stone quarrying with convict labor seem to 
be permanent features and destined to rapid development in 
Ohio. 


NEW YORK 

State convicts have never been worked on state highways in 
New York, but a few counties have employed their prisoners 
on the roads, notably Onondaga County, in which Syracuse 
is located. 

By the laws of 1912 it was provided that state convicts could 
be used near the Clinton and Great Meadow prisons, and 
$10,000 was appropriated for that purpose. It is stated that 
the men accomplished $6,000 worth of work at a cost of $700. 
There has also been considerable road work near the new 
Great Meadow prison as previously noted. According to the 
latest report, 25 men have been employed near Dannamora, 


6o 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


living in tents about seven miles from the prison, and of these 
but one man escaped. 

For the past two seasons, Onondaga County has conducted 
a very interesting experiment to determine the feasibility of 
using the county convicts on road construction. During the 
year 1911, work was carried on from August 24th to Novem¬ 
ber 24th. Conditions for a good showing were unfavorable; 
the weather was poor; eleven rainy days occurred in October. 
Construction was difficult; the work was heavy and partly in 
quicksand; supplies had to be imported; it was necessary to 
ship stone at the highest rates; the supervision was inexperi¬ 
enced; and the location was distant from the penitentiary. 
Admittedly, this stretch of road, between Amboy and Warners, 
was chosen because of the difficulties attending its construction. 
The men were sheltered in a farm house which they themselves 
repaired, making it habitable. Half a dozen did the house¬ 
work, cooking and laundry work. 

The average number of men was about 35. The working 
day was 8 hours, with 1 hours for dinner. The guards 
were for supervision rather than discipline, and the men 
themselves were unhampered by chains. Although over 100 
different men were employed, no attempt at escape occurred. 
From the standpoint of the convicts there was much encourage¬ 
ment, as they remained healthy and willing to work, although 
inexperienced and receiving no wage. So satisfactory was the 
trial that the board of county supervisors determined to con¬ 
tinue it the next year, which plan was carried out, the work 
being on a larger scale. 

For the work of 1912 the arrangements included: 

1. The payment of 7^4 cents per convict hour to the peni¬ 
tentiary out of the county road fund, for work on the road. 

2. The use of not more than 5 keepers for a road gang of 
60 prisoners. 

During the working season of 6 J 4 months (173 working 
days) the convicts built about 4 miles more of the Amboy- 
Warners Road. Construction along lines similar to the pre¬ 
vious year resulted satisfactorily. While the prison, popula- 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 61 

tion of Onondaga County decreased 22.6% in the two years, 
that of surrounding counties increased 12% and 25%. Evi¬ 
dently road work tends to diminish the number of criminals, 
as Kalamazoo County, Michigan, discovered. Disciplinary 
measures were not found necessary; the stone quarry back at 
the penitentiary was always a possibility for misbehavior. The 
prisoners were healthy and worked well. One man escaped 
and two more attempted escape. One of them was brought 
back by a farmer and the other returned voluntarily. 

Instead of the farm house, a combination of portable farm 
buildings was erected by the county at a cost of $1,500. These 
buildings were made of good-quality lumber and were ar¬ 
ranged in panels, with all parts interchangeable, capable of 
being readily collapsed and moved as occasion required. They 
were well lighted and ventilated, and proved to be very satis¬ 
factory throughout the season. In the latter part of the fall, 
stoves were installed, and the prisoners were kept in comfort 
at all times. Although in the midst of a busy farming com¬ 
munity and near three school houses there was no complaint 
of misconduct during the whole season. 

As a result of the year’s work, the special committee ap¬ 
pointed to investigate and report, recommended: 

1. That the work be continued upon a larger scale. 

2. That the number of guards be decreased and an honor 
system be established, discarding the stripes except for dis¬ 
cipline. 

3. That the working day in the quarry be decreased to 8 
hours, exclusive of traveling time to and from the penitentiary. 

4. That as a result of satisfactory conduct and conscientious 
work, an improvement in rations be accorded, and possibly the 
use of crockery instead of metal dishes. 

The recommendations were adopted. These considerations 
together with the complete cost data, discussed elsewhere, 
throw very interesting light on the convict road question. The 
Syracuse experiment is the most advanced yet attempted in the 
East and will be watched with interest. Great credit is due 


62 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


the officials for their persistence and for their success in the 
face of opposition and skepticism. 

State Superintendent of Highways Reel, before his recent 
retirement, expressed himself as favoring convict labor for 
roads under state management thus saving the commonwealth 
“ millions of dollars.” Certainly from the data at hand re¬ 
garding convict labor and from the consideration that in a few 
years New York will have expended a hundred millions on 
improved roads, such a statement appears within the bounds 
of possibility. 


NEW JERSEY 

Up to December 1913, state convicts had never been used 
on roads in New Jersey. It was thought that the prisoners 
would not work because they knew the authorities could do no 
more than return them to the penitentiary. Mercer County 
had used a few in its stone-crushing quarry to some advant¬ 
age. In Essex County penitentiary also there was some stone 
crushing attempted by hand labor, the average earning of the 
convict being about 15 cents a day. 

Following the lead of Colorado, other western states, and 
Onondaga County, New York, New Jersey in the spring of 
1912 enacted laws provided for working her prisoners on the 
public roads, thus becoming the pioneer among eastern states 
in using convict labor as she had previously been in inaugurat¬ 
ing her state-aid system. It was expected in this manner to 
relieve the congestion of the state prison, where there were 
but 1300 cells for over 1450 men. The bill, passed in April 
1912, provides that the state commissioner of public roads or 
board of chosen freeholders of any county may make appli¬ 
cation for state prisoners, designating the number desired. 
The prison labor commission, in conjunction with the govern¬ 
ing body of the penitentiary, may then decide the number to 
be allowed, cost of transportation, maintenance, and compen¬ 
sation, and may so enter into an agreement with the counties. 
Funds for the highway work may be expended in housing and 
feeding these prisoners. 

In September the state road commissioner requested men 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 63 

for work in Burlington County. This was refused by the 
board of prison inspectors on the ground that the responsibil¬ 
ity for escape was not fixed. This objection was well taken. 
The authorities assigned finally 16 men for work in Mercer 
County, where the state penitentiary is located, so as to re¬ 
turn to that institution every night. 

The work started in the middle of December near Trenton 
under one foreman with two deputies carrying concealed 
arms,—grading clearing, cleaning and general repairs. The 
crew travels to and from the penitentiary in a large stage and 
is fed on the road, working about 8 hours a day. Instead of 
prison stripes or chains, the uniform is gray. The men are 
for the most part long-term prisoners, with good records, hav¬ 
ing only a few months more to serve. Although unaccus¬ 
tomed to this work, they have given great satisfaction, appre¬ 
ciating the opportunity for outdoor work, so that after two 
months the authorities are enthusiastic in demand for a more 
general adoption of the system. 

Present plans anticipate the employment of about 200 to 250 
prisoners during the coming season, on both repairs and con¬ 
struction, thus materially relieving the overcrowded jail con¬ 
ditions and saving many thousands of dollars. For this the 
state is to pay 50 cents per convict per day. The anticipation 
is that auto trucks will be used for transportation near the 
penitentiary and camps established in more remote localities. 
It is urged that although the work is paid for at a low rate 
(labor being actually worth about $ 1-75 P er day) the counties 
could not afford to expend more; nor could outside workers be 
obtained, so that free labor is not injured at all. 

It is planned that the amount paid by the road department 
for labor shall go to the convicts’ families in case of married 
men or those having others dependent on them, and in other 
cases shall be held as a fund for the benefit of the convict at 
release, but not necessarily to be paid to him in a lump at 
that time. It is also planned to parole good men for work as 
patrolmen on the highways. 

This state work, together with that authorized for the coun¬ 
ties about the same time, will receive the close attention of all 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


64 

who are interested in the welfare of convicts or the develop¬ 
ment of the public roads. Its success and the cost data ob¬ 
tained may influence policies of many other northeastern states 
in regard to convict road work. 

In the foregoing accounts, little attempt has been made to 
comment on more than the most important cases. Except in 
one or two instances, no reference has been made to the work 
of counties—and there are many of them that have employed 
their convicts on roads. The truth is that county attempts 
have not been so thorough as those of the states. The coun¬ 
ties have lacked a sufficient number of suitable prisoners to 
form an efficient gang, as well as adequate and experienced 
supervisors, and funds to furnish camps and provide equip¬ 
ment. Above all, they have not had strong enough public 
sentiment to prevent mismanagement and abuses. 

County administration is crude at best; county boards of 
supervisors are seldom run with any idea of efficiency, and the 
rules and regulations laid down by them have not been af¬ 
fected at all by the movement which has improved our city 
governments. The convicts, whether under a sheriff, a justice 
of the peace or a specially appointed warden, are of all kinds 
and sorts. Classification is almost impossible unless a number 
of the counties combine together and pool their convicts. 
Petty politics, petty graft and petty oppression mark the atti¬ 
tude of county administration in things penal. A few strik¬ 
ing instances of county road work may be cited; in Massachu¬ 
setts, men from the Worchester jail built roads for a camp on 
Mt. Wachusett, 1 and in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, con¬ 
victs were employed on the roads. 2 Granted that the plan of 
county work has already shown marked success elsewhere, it 
is unpopular in certain sections, because of the differences 
in climatic and geographical conditions, character of prison¬ 
ers, and sentiment. Yet all are glad to see some other com¬ 
munity try the scheme. Hence, advocates of road building 
by county convicts are united in crediting New Jersey and 

1 Boston Post, May 26th, 1912. 

2 Newcastle (Pa.) News, July 26th, 1911. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 65 

Onondaga County, New York, not only with common sense 
but with courage and consideration for their convicts. 

COST DATA 

While the employment of prisoners on roads is a matter of 
character-building rather than financial gain or loss, adoption 
or rejection of the plan has been made contingent upon cost. 
Inevitably we must consider whether the scheme involves a 
credit or deficit in the public treasury. For convenience, the 
cost data have been collected for comparison and discussion. 
They are given in tabulated form below. 

It is unfortunate that the information of actual cost is often 
generalized, meager and indefinite, rather than itemized. The 
table represents practically all that has been gathered from 
official reports, newspaper clippings, and private correspond¬ 
ence in the files of the National Committee on Prison Labor. 
In justice, it must be presupposed that more complete records 
have been kept—the misfortune is that they are not avail¬ 
able. Forty-six per cent of the items recorded are from Wash¬ 
ington and Colorado; the remaining fifty-four represent nine 
other localities. 

The unit costs are obtained by the four following methods: 

(1) By comparison of the actual cost with the value of the 
work, estimated according to the probable expense if done by 
free labor. The latter cost is calculated according to the 
relative natural efficiency of convicts and free laborers, some 
students being of the opinion that convicts are naturally men 
of a lower grade than free laborers. 

(2) By comparison of the resultant costs with the average 
costs for similar localities and conditions where work has been 
done by private contractors. 

(3) By obtaining previously or subsequently a contractor's 
bid on the work, and then comparing this with the cost. 

(4) By ascertaining the value of the work done, computing 
it from the engineer’s measurement of qualities and preva¬ 
lent union prices for the locality and conditions, and then 
comparing with the actual costs. 


66 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


Convict Labor 





Cost per convict 

Total cost 




per day 




Location of work 

No. of 
convicts 

Guarding 

Subsistence 

Per convict 
per day 

Per job 

I 

Lyle, Wash. 

5 °(?) 

$ - 47 s 

$ .636 


$36,845 

2 

Wash. State, 







1909-10 






3 

Method Rv., 

30 






Wash. 





I .567 

4 

Lyle, Wash. 

84 




5 

Lyle, Wash. 

84 




1,892 

6 

State Rd., 1 2 No. 6, 







Wash. 




$ -75 


7 

Oregon; Medford 



•30 



to Crater Lake 






8 

Oregon, 1911 



•50 



9 

Tempe, Ariz., 

50 

•563 

.478 

1.09 



Salt R. bridge 





26,050 

10 

New Mexico, 1912 

' 





11 

Utah 



•36 


105,565 

12 

Elkhorn, Colo. 

35 



•25 


13 

Mesa Co., Colo. 

30-60 




2,700 
per mile 

14 

Ute Pass, Colo. 





3,403 

15 Colorado, 1909-10 

225 



•36 

54,500 

16 

Colorado, 1911 



•30 

•50 


17 

Wyoming, 1911 

• 


.29 

• 3 8 7 


18 

Missoula, Mont. 





1,280.31 

19 

I 

Sanders Co., Mont. 





8,798.09 

20 

Cole Co., Mo. 




.46 


21 

Green Co., Mo. 



.40 



22 

Kalamazoo, Mich. 




.40 

2 

23 

Onondaga Co., 

35 




5,900 

N. Y., 1911, 





24 , 337-66 


1912 

50 

.412 

.277 


24 

Clinton Co., New 
York, July- 

161 

•234 



8,110.50 


Nov , 1913 






25 

New Jersey, Camp 





6,743.12 


No. 1, 1913 






26 

Camp No. 2 





2,122.93 


Camps 1 and 2 





8,866.05 


1 Economy of convicts an open question in this case. 

2 Two miles at $1,972 a mile. 



































USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


6 / 


Cost Data 


Value of work 

Saving 






References 

Per convict 
per day 

Per job 

Per convict 
per day 

Per job 



$119,110 

$3.69 

$82,265 

Good Roads , June 26, 1812, p. 
722. 



3-95 


Spokane ( Wash .) Spokesman 
Review , April 14, 1911. 



4.03 


Good Roads , January, 1012. 


3 >i 23 

1.66 

C 556 

Good Roads, July, 1910, p. 274. 


4 , 3 22 

2.60 

2,430 

Ibid . 

Report of State Highway Com¬ 
mission , Sept. 30, 1910. 

Sunset , San Francisco, April, 

$2.50 


1.5° 


1912. 

Good Roads Year Book , 1912, 
p. 294. 





Official correspondence. 


64,969 


38,919 

Warden's Annual Report , No¬ 
vember 30, 1912. 


198,682 


93 ,H 7 

Salt Lake City News, December 
21, 1912. 

Salem ( Oregon) Statesman , 

$2-3 


i -75 






January 29, 1913. 





Press reports. 


8,354 


4,951 

Colorado Springs Gazette, May 
13, 1911. 


212,160 


157,660 

Warden's Biennial Report, 
November 30, 1910. 

2.00 


1.50 


Good Roads Year Book, 1012, 
p. 285. 





Good Roads Year Book , 1912, 


12,816 

171,400 


11 , 535-69 

p. 298. 

Address of Atty.-Gen. Galen at 
Montana Good Roads Congress, 
Anaconda, Mont., July 8, 1912. 

Address of Atty.-Gen. Galen at 
Montana Good Roads Congress, 
Anaconda, Mont., July 8, 1912. 


162,601.91 







Official Correspondence. 

Good Roads Year Book , 1912, 





p. 291. 

Engineering Record , February 
24, 1912, p. 223. 




None 

Engineering Contracting , Feb¬ 
ruary 28, 1912. 




None 

Report of special committee to 
Board of County Supervisors. 


5 , 933 -° 2 


None 



3,042.00 


919.07 



8,975.02 


108.97 
































68 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


The first process may be illustrated in the following manner: 
If the prisoners seem to work as hard as free laborers, who 
are worth $2 a day, they, too, are considered worth that much, 
and if the gross costs for their keep are $1, a clear saving of 
$i is indicated. The inaccuracy of this method lies in its 
assumption of the equal efficiency of convict and free labor. 
It guesses at a figure which may easily be obtained exactly. 
The correct order of reasoning is exemplified in the other 
three methods. Items number 7, 12 and 14 in the cost data 
table are figured by this first method. 

The inaccuracy of the second method, though less than that 
of the first, lies in the possible errors of judgment in gauging 
the relative expense of construction in two “ similar ” loca¬ 
tions, and in allowing for the inequalities. For this reason, 
the actual gain or loss in the Onondaga experiment with con¬ 
vict labor cannot be estimated. It is impossible to tell from 
the accounts just how much the stretch of road built by the 
prisoners would have cost if done by free labor. 

In the third case, which is really the same as the fourth,— 
the two are the same problem—the cost with free labor is 
actually obtained, that is, the lowest contractor’s bid for the 
work becomes the standard with which the costs with convict 
labor are compared. (The costs for Colorado during 1909 
and 1910 were obtained in this manner.) 

In the last method, these actual free-labor costs are found 
from the engineer’s quantities (which the contractor in the 
third case would need for making his bid), the unit costs be¬ 
ing assumed by the engineer, probably as accurately as the con¬ 
tractor could assume them. This method does not involve the 
trouble of advertising for bids, or the unfairness of putting 
the contractor to the expense of figuring the costs without any 
intention on the part of the state of letting the contract. (The 
costs of work in the state of Washington are obtained by this 
method.) 

The whole problem of cost-keeping for convict labor on 
roads resolves itself into the accuracy of securing the costs by 
free outside labor, as a basis of comparison with the costs 
actually found by using the prisoners. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 69 

In compiling the table, the items were sometimes obtained 
by information from more than one source. Newspaper clip¬ 
pings, although not always reliable, furnished much infor¬ 
mation, which, on account of the lack of other data, has been 
included. The matter of interest and depreciation for equip¬ 
ment has evidently received scant consideration. Apparently, 
the common method has been either to deduct this whole cost 
from the first season’s outlay, or to ignore it entirely. In the 
latter case, costs and profits have been figured as gross sums. 
Indeed, this is all too common a method. Whenever a definite 
understanding regarding the manner of computing the costs 
was given, the necessary corrections for interest and depre¬ 
ciation, evidently only approximate, have been applied, so 
that it is felt that the table is essentially correct, at least 
enough so for the purposes here intended. However, it would 
seem desirable that more complete results be published in 
future. It is necessary for the state prison or highway au¬ 
thorities to know in just what manner their money is being 
expended; or else, a gross waste in one class of work may be 
covered by economy in another, so that a surplus or saving for 
the work as a whole may be shown. Public work of this sort 
differs from that of private individuals, in which a contractor’s 
figures of costs are to him as much a part of his stock in trade 
as the manufacturer’s patented processes. But in this case, 
where convict work is almost in its infancy, the attitude should 
be that of cooperation, for only by comparing results and 
profiting by the mistakes of others can the states make rapid 
progress. 

The fallacy of any conclusive deductions from the cost of 
road per mile is clear. Thus, the work of item number one, 
at Lyle, Washington, is apparently high, $24,000 per mile, yet 
the engineer’s estimate shows that it would probably have been* 
230 per cent higher if it had been done by contract. This 
same example also illustrates the fallacy of any mere estimate 
of work done, even by an expert, without the substantial data 
being given, as in this case, showing the exact yardage of ex¬ 
cavation and masonry. In this particular instance, there was 
also given the average expense incident to working one convict 


;o 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


one day, including superintendence, guarding, subsistence, 
clothing, camp equipment, explosives and building materials. 
These figures are very handy for computing the average sav¬ 
ing per convict per day and also for use in subsequent esti¬ 
mates of gross costs; but for this discussion they need not be 
considered. 

As will be noted, little attention has been paid to work done 
by counties, which has usually been on so much smaller a scale 
that it would tend to give misleading impressions. It was also 
necessary to discard some of the published results of state 
work, notably in the case of one state prison report where two 
widely separate and inexplicably different figures were given 
indicating the cost per man to the state for each convict one 
day on the road. 

However, the main facts regarding the costs of road work 
by convict labor stand out clearly. The column showing the 
saving indicates generally more than a mere balance in favor 
of convict labor against other methods of construction; it shows 
a large profit. Besides the direct economy indicated, there is 
often an indirect one resulting from the fact that much of the 
money laid out for the state highways finds its way into the 
funds of the penitentiary. Inasmuch as both the roads and 
the state institutions are supported publicly, an increase in 
income for the prison benefits the state as much in the reduc¬ 
tion of tax as does the decrease in the cost of highways. 
Hence the two together should be credited as resulting from 
the use of convicts on roads. 

The unit costs of guarding and subsistence, while by no 
means complete, at least indicate a fair degree of uniformity. 
The average cost of subsistence is found to be $.40 per day 
per man; while the expenditure for guarding in those cases 
where costs were given averaged $.484. The striking thing 
about these figures is that the expense of guarding is 20% 
more than that of feeding. This tends to bear out the state¬ 
ment of the advocates of the honor system, viz., that the 
expense of guarding takes away all the profit that might other¬ 
wise accrue from the employment of convicts on roads. 

In justice to the facts of the Onondaga work, some ex- 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


71 


planation of the figures for 1912 is due. For this work the 
overhead charges due to superintendence and guarding were 
unduly high, because there was a small working force of 
prisoners. Increasing the number 50% would result in prac¬ 
tically no additional fixed charges, and so would decrease the 
cost of the work 10%. Likewise an increase in length of 
working day from eight to nine hours (the usual number of 
hours on state road work is ten) would reduce the cost for 
both labor and teaming by an additional 10%, making a 20% 
saving in all. These changes with other suggested savings 
in the operation of the county road quarry, which might affect 
county and private road contractors alike, would cause con¬ 
siderable reduction in cost. In spite of the apparent lack of 
pecuniary gain, the system achieved sufficient success to secure 
the hearty approval of the authorities and a recommendation 
for its continuation on a larger scale. The other items re¬ 
quire no further comment, inasmuch as the published details 
of surrounding conditions give little more information than 
that shown in the table. 

The significant deductions from the study of these tabulated 
results as a whole are: 

(1) That there is a general and considerable saving in the 
use of convict labor for road work over other methods of con¬ 
struction, this saving being quite independent of locality and 
types of construction, although influenced by the size of gang 
employed. 

(2) That the cost of feeding convicts on road work is uni¬ 
form for all those cases in which data are available, and aver¬ 
ages $.40 per prisoner per day. 

(3) That the cost of guarding alone has amounted to about 
$.48 per convict per day, this item being 120% of the aver¬ 
age expenditure for subsistence. 

UTILITY OF CONVICTS FOR ROADS 

The experience of states where the system of convict road 
building has received a trial enables us to answer quite posi¬ 
tively the query as to whether this work is a suitable substitute 
for methods of employment now in vogue. It has been shown 


72 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


that the present method is wrong; it remains to indicate why 
the proposed one is right. 

The question of competition with free labor comes first, not 
because of any added importance over the other considerations 
but rather because it has been made the issue in so many legis¬ 
lative battles wherein the contract system has been abolished. 
The lawmakers, while rather blind to the wrongs of the pris¬ 
oners, are keen enough to appreciate the grievances of free 
labor, their constituency. 

The stand of organized labor is against " unfair competi¬ 
tion. ” In common with other students of the convict-labor 
problem, the trade unions also urge humanitarian reasons for 
a change in the contract system. But with labor it is a ques¬ 
tion of more than passing interest; it is a matter of self¬ 
protection, and almost of commercial life and death. Con¬ 
vict labor is bound to work some hardship to free laborers. 
The problem is to find the kind of work providing a maximum 
of benefit to the prisoner and the state while at the same time 
causing a minimum of friction with free labor. 

The “ unfair competition ” is most easily explained by an 
example: Prisoners are employed in making articles of cloth¬ 
ing to supply all the institutions of the state, i. e ., the state 
itself becomes the preferred market for their commodity. This 
replaces the work of an equal number of free laborers but af¬ 
fects only a small percentage of the total workers. Against 
this plan, let the prison-made goods be placed on the open 
market by private contractors in competition with articles 
manufactured outside and the whole market becomes dis¬ 
turbed. Instead of the small percentage injured, the whole 
trade suffers. 

As expressed by one of their writers, 1 the dissatisfaction of 
the unions is on account of these “ methods by which prison 
labor when performed for the benefit of private contractors, 
places the convicts’ labor on the market and thereby forces 
reductions in wages upon large numbers and by so doing, 
lowers their standard of living.” Instead, the solution by 

^■John P. Frey, Proceedings of National Conference of Charities and Cor' 
rection, 1912. 


USE OF CONVICT LAB OF IN THE NORTH 


73 


work in the open air is offered, benefiting the prisoner in 
health, in mind, and in morals. “ There are highways to 
build, there is farm produce to be provided, and the convicts 
can do all of this with a minimum of competition with free 
labor and with no injury to the farmer. ,, The same writer 
sums up for labor in the following words: 

Briefly reviewed, the trade-union attitude towards prison labor is: 
(1) that its first object should be the prisoner’s reformation and 
under no circumstances should any element of private profit enter 
into consideration; (2) that the labor performed by the prisoner 
should be of a useful nature; ( 3 ) that for this labor the convict 
should be paid for the benefit of those dependent on him and for his 
own assistance upon regaining freedom; and (4) finally, that the 
principal object of the state should be to protect itself from the 
vicious and the unfortunate, to give them an adequate opportunity 
for reformation, and not to derive profit from their labor. 

Road work does not compete with free labor. Rather it 
benefits the working class in common with all others. The 
improvement of roads, which are public property, can be of 
advantage to one class more than to another only to the ex¬ 
tent that it uses them more. Indirectly, the betterment must 
help everybody, in decreased costs of transportation for food 
and commercial products, and opportunities for social inter¬ 
course. At present, the labor on our highways is almost en¬ 
tirely foreign, and in amount not enough to meet the needs. 
Even in New York city, where many of the aliens enter, 
Italian labor for street construction is hard to get in the busy 
season. Convict road work may conceivably tend toward a 
slight decrease of immigration—not an undesirable effect. 
The possible increase of our road mileage to meet even the 
present need is not yet in sight. There will always be work 
to do. Where native Americans are now employed in road 
building, it is a matter of expediency rather than preference 
on their part, resulting from the necessity of obtaining the 
highways and the scarcity of suitable labor to do the work. 

The special committee reporting on the convict work in 
Onondaga County, New York, in February, 1913, 1 after ex- 

1 Journal of the Board of Supervisors of Onondaga County, February 3, 
1 9 I 3 > P. 42 . 


74 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


haustive investigation stated: “ It is conceded by those who 
have made a study of the question of the employment of 
prison labor that the use of said labor in quarry and road 
work conflicts with free labor in a lesser degree than in almost 
any other line of employment. ,, Opinions of the daily press 
and of the officials who have tried the convict road work cor¬ 
roborate the above view. 

From organized labor itself and from a spokesman no less 
authoritative than Samuel Gompers, President of the Ameri¬ 
can Federation of Labor, 1 comes a more sweeping approval. 
He says: “ It is my opinion that the least possible competition 
of prisoners as against free labor would ensue in the building 
of roads which would not only be beneficial to the prisoners, 
but would to some extent relieve the taxpayer.” 

Does the convict deserve or should he receive any special 
consideration as to his incarceration? If so, what? Public 
opinion has heretofore denied any such right. The prisoner 
has violated the laws of the state and must be punished. He 
has caused the state considerable expense for arrest, convic¬ 
tion and then usually for imprisonment. He should pay the 
debt. He is a moral degenerate and hence should be im¬ 
prisoned, that he may not further injure or contaminate others. 
This is all very true from the viewpoint of the state, but what 
of the prisoner? We realize now that although his indebted¬ 
ness is great, financial and moral, we are under even greater 
obligation to ourselves, through him, for his reformation. 
When his term is served, his debt is paid—so the law assumes. 
But wherein is society benefited if he still has the weakness of 
mind, the inclination or desire to do evil ? Morally he is sick, 
as much as before; he is bound again to transgress the law 
and to find his way back to the penitentiary, causing an added 
expense to the state. To get at the root of the trouble, we 
must “ create a new heart ” and substitute a “ right spirit.” 
In short our attitude is now that of reformation and not pun¬ 
ishment. 

1 In letter to State Labor Bureau of Montana. Helena ( Montana ) Record , 
May 19, 1911. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


7 5 


The physical cure should preceed the moral. In New 
Jersey at least 50% of the delinquents have some physical or 
mental weakness. 1 In the case of the convict, the authorities 
realize that the man should first be made healthy. 

This emphasizes the need of work in the open air, thus 
making preferable labor on the farm or road. For many 
reasons the highways are the more suited; there is greater need 
of roads than of farm produce; there is practically no com¬ 
petition such as might occur were all employed in raising pro¬ 
duce; and the results are more directly beneficial to all the 
people. Physically the effect of road work on the convicts has 
been remarkably beneficial, as results from all the states show. 
The cost of medical attendance has decreased and almost van¬ 
ished. After one or two months of hard work in the open air, 
with good healthy meals, the men have become brown and 
hardened, really enjoying the work and preferring it to any 
other form of labor. 

Health regained, the moral cure is possible by means of 
the honor system. With men’s minds on their work and with 
no opportunity to brood, the desire to escape decreases. 
Gradual increase in freedom and responsibilities gives added 
power to resist temptation. Self-respect comes back and with 
it self-confidence. Knowledge of work well done, of trust 
faithfully fulfilled, of being a producer instead of a parasite, 
gives ambition for even better things. Conscience aroused 
and desire for reform instilled, the redemption of the criminal 
is half accomplished. Instead of escape there is in some cases 
a positive desire to stay, and discharged prisoners often re¬ 
quest and are given re-employment. That the men make good 
is also attested by the number who are afterward employed 
nearby on farms. 

Financial results as shown in the table of cost data are 
eloquent proof that the road work is popular among the con¬ 
victs. No such work has been accomplished except through 
zeal on the part of the laborers. Even contract labor with 

1 Dr. Frank Moore in Annual Report, New Jersey State Reformatory, 1913. 
(See Annals American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 1913, 
“ Prison Reform in New Jersey,” by C. L. Stonaker.) 


;6 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


all its driving (under the stimulus of narcotics) with a boasted 
efficiency equal to free labor, has not effected such economy. 
The work is hard, intentionally. Otherwise the regaining of 
full health is difficult. But with good health comes the abil¬ 
ity and usually the desire to do honest work after release. To 
offset this rigorous discipline, the food is improved in quality 
and unlimited in quantity. The men do justice to three square 
meals a day. 

Nor is the road work without actual pleasure. After work 
sports, games, music, reading and social intercourse give the 
men something to look forward to. Under proper supervision 
there results a mental improvement greater than is usually 
attained in the shops. On Sundays it is possible to hold reli¬ 
gious meetings and so attend to the spiritual welfare of the 
men. 

Heretofore the public has been averse to employing ex¬ 
convicts, often because of unwarranted prejudice. The same 
feeling has caused condemnation of the exposure of convicts 
on public roads. But the convicts are inconspicuous in their 
gray or khaki uniforms working like free men without guard, 
and the prejudice is soon overcome. This is bound to help 
the prisoner. To be treated like an honest man is encourag¬ 
ing, while to be made subject to suspicion and distrust causes 
antagonism. 

The convict’s chance for subsequent employment is improved 
by such occupation. As has been pointed out, 1 most of 
the men would have been nothing more than day laborers in 
any event. There is, however, opportunity for the more 
skilled to develop along the lines of roller engineers, black¬ 
smiths, masons, carpenters and other useful trades connected 
with road and bridge work. Competent road foremen are 
always in demand, and under the expert supervision recom¬ 
mended, no better training could be conceived. Such cannot 
be claimed for farming and prison manufacturing. In addi¬ 
tion, road work has this invaluable advantage: it tends not only 

1 Joseph Hyde Pratt, Annals of American Academy of Political and Social 
Science , March, 1913. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


77 

to supply the training for useful occupation, but, more im¬ 
portant, the physical strength and inclination to follow it. 

The prime advantage to the state of any form of convict 
employment must be its moral effect on the prisoner; this can¬ 
not be measured in dollars and cents. The facts with refer¬ 
ence to road work are so well authenticated and corroborated 
in different localities, that they are indisputable. Oregon 
reports 85 per cent reformed among those employed on 
road work. 1 In Syracuse the saving in character alone is con¬ 
sidered to do far more than offset any possible monetary loss. 2 

This reformation certainly lowers the number of second 
offenders. It thus lessens state expense for policing, im¬ 
prisoning, and maintaining prisoners, to say nothing of the 
moral and financial effect of decrease in crime. It makes un¬ 
necessary the expense of increasing prison accommodations. 
In addition, road work acts as a deterrent for some forms of 
offense, notably vagrancy, as shown in Kalamazoo, Michigan. 3 
If there is anything a tramp would avoid, it is the physically 
strenuous labor of road work. Onondaga County, New York, 
found that even the more serious classes of crime were lessened. 4 
The vagrant and tramp avoid these communities and the prison 
population decreases in proportion. This is contrary to the 
condition that exists under the prison contract system as cited 
by Governor Hadley of Missouri. 5 

The convict’s wife and children are benefited by the pay¬ 
ment of a wage, as discussed later. The family should not be 
deprived of the necessary material support, with the attendant 
possibilities for education and pleasure. Upon reformation, 
the family relationship is restored and the father’s influence 
becomes one for good instead of evil. 

1 Estimate made by Governor West of Oregon as reported in the Tulsa 
( Okla .) World, May 6, 1912. 

2 Minutes of Board of County Supervisors, Onondaga County, Feb. 3, 1913, 
pp. 42-3. 

3 Outdoor Work in Michigan, by William K. Bryant. Annals of American 
Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 1913. 

4 Ibid., pp. 41-42. Syracuse lournal, April 8, 1913. 

5 New Theory as to Punishment of Crime, by Herbert S. Hadley. Annals of 
American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 1913. 


78 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


It need not be feared that the conditions may be made too 
favorable, so as to be actually attractive. Even on the high¬ 
ways, the tendency has been toward over-severity rather than 
leniency. No man would undergo the ignominy and disgrace 
of a public trial even to gain a reputed irresponsibility and 
ease in work on the public roads. On the other hand, there 
are many who believe that the court proceedings, with their 
humiliation, are punishment enough and further effort should 
tend solely to reformation. 1 

The advantage and necessity of securing good roads at 
cheap cost have already been shown. It is submitted that 
in view of the results already obtained as witnessed by the 
cost data, roads cost less to the state when built by convict 
labor than by any other mode of construction at present em¬ 
ployed. Convicts and roads both being state property, the 
maximum of efficiency is possible through their joint operation. 2 

The gangs are permanent. Although they change con¬ 
stantly in personnel through expiration of sentence and 
pardon, the changes are in small units only and they do not 
destroy the organization of the working force, since they can 
be readily anticipated. The state may be sure of the work¬ 
ers; there are no strikes. Thus a definite continuity of work 
is effected. In any construction work organization is of prime 
importance. In this respect the road work would be for¬ 
tunate. The men are naturally of a higher type of intelli¬ 
gence than the average road immigrant laborer and hence the 
various tasks, quite simple in themselves, are readily learned, 
and by continued use perfected. New men are broken in as 
they come, a few at a time, without disturbance. The work 
itself being done for the state and by the state, the friction 
which sometimes develops in ordinary road contract work is 
obviated. 

The choice of labor for convicts, considering its effect on 
their health, lies between the farm and the road. It requires 

1 Julian Hawthorne in New York Times , Sunday, Jan. 18, 1914. Marshall¬ 
town (Iowa) Republican, April 25, 1911. 

2 Making Roads Through Prison Labor, by E. Stagg Whitin. The Review, 
February, 1911. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


79 


only a part of the prison population to grow sufficient produce 
for the state institutions alone. More than this number, if 
used, would give a surplus which would need be disposed of 
to the disadvantage of the free farmer. Moreover it is in¬ 
conceivable that the amount thus earned could be converted 
into any permanent, tangible public property of as great value 
and serviceability as the public highway resulting from the 
same expenditure of prison labor. It is easy to get sufficient 
farm produce with relatively few men; it is difficult to obtain 
sufficient public road mileage. Moreover the roads need not 
be sold to the detriment of the very persons who should be 
protected. Instead they benefit the public alone and im¬ 
partially. 

The convict should receive wage. This is not charity, but 
justice. If he has a family, they should get their just propor¬ 
tion ; if not, his wage should accumulate until his release. 
Someone must provide for the prisoner’s dependents. If 
their own efforts fail, charity or the state must take a hand 
or crime and disease will result. It is a short-sighted policy 
where punishment of one crime involves the committing of 
others, or where justice toward the prisoner results in injustice 
toward the innocent already too much injured. Yet this is 
the plan we have been following. In some states, as New 
Jersey and Ohio, there is provision for a state pension in such 
instances. This may be advisable sometimes but in the case 
of an able-bodied prisoner it is fundamentally wrong. A man 
has the responsibility for those dependent upon him even 
though he be in prison. Commission of crime may forfeit 
civic rights, but it does not remove or shift responsibility for 
those the criminal has pledged himself to protect and provide 
for. He should not be allowed to forget this. Nor is such 
an obligation unrecognized by the prisoner ofttimes. Can the 
state refuse the prisoner the privilege of supporting his family 
while in prison? 

There is another side to the question, viz ., that the increase 
in production following the allowance of wage more than 
justifies its payment. This is an economic situation quite 
apart from the sociological. The wage should be in propor- 


8o 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


tion to the value of the man’s services and the cost of his main¬ 
tenance should be deducted from it. It should increase in 
proportion to the increased efficiency of the road group, while 
the method of standardization of labor costs should be worked 
out. Quite universally this plan of allowing a wage is re¬ 
garded as practicable, and many states, as Oregon, Nevada 
and others, use it successfully. Nearly all the states favor it 
and there is no doubt that it is an economical as well as an 
equitable feature. 

At the same time the prisoner has already caused the state 
expense enough so that the wage should not exceed his net 
earnings. The payment of a wage presupposes a form of 
employment by which the convict can earn it. Since road 
work shows large net earnings on the part of the prisoner, 
it follows that the wage is made possible by this method. 
And since the earnings are large, such pay is of relatively 
small expense to the state. 

If he helps support his family, the prisoner must have some 
feeling of pride. A balance to his credit on the prison book 
at any time acts as a check on his conduct during the re¬ 
mainder of his term, a guarantee of continued satisfactory 
service. Upon release it need not all be delivered over to him 
at once. The amount withheld serves to check extravagance, 
and provides a rein over his actions until it is finally with¬ 
drawn. This money permits, first, the purchase of wearing 
apparel so that the discharged prisoner need not be handi¬ 
capped by appearance. It then provides assurance of a live¬ 
lihood until permanent work is found, and eliminates worry 
on that score. Further, the possession of cash creates a feel¬ 
ing of independence and self-confidence. With the health 
resulting from outdoor road work, the training for manual 
labor received, the reform accomplished in so many cases under 
the honor system, the renewed self-confidence and inclination 
toward real work, and the cash available to tide over the 
difficult period following release, the released prisoner should 
be equipped to earn an honest living and lead an upright life. 

The striking thing about convict road work in the North 
is its wide range of application. The well authenticated re- 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 81 

ports of state work to date show that it is capable of use under 
varying conditions. Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, 
Ohio and Onondaga County, New York, present climatic and 
geographical conditions as varied as is possible in the northern 
states. All classes of prisoners have been used, from mere 
misdemeanants to life-termers. The system has been tried 
in the wilds of Washington and Colorado and in the deserts of 
Arizona, in the suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Trenton, New 
Jersey, and through the farm lands of central New York. 

There are parts of New York state and Pennsylvania very 
similar to the country in Colorado and Washington, and these 
sections need good roads. The class of prisoners differs, it 
is said, being of a less dependable type in the East than in the 
West. Yet the numbers here are greater. Surely of all the 
large prison population some can be found as well suited for 
road work as in Colorado. It cannot be claimed that all are 
fitted for employment on the highways; some must always be 
under close watch and others are physically incapable. But it 
is claimed that the success of Colorado may be duplicated 
in New York; that the physical conditions and the classes of 
convicts employed in the two cases need not be radically dif¬ 
ferent; and that the intelligence and capability of our public 
officials make the harmonizing of convicts and road work as 
much a possibility here in the East as in the West. 1 

The evidence available indicates the advisability of follow¬ 
ing the honor system, for the good of both the convict and 
the state. The privileges given should be such as to make 
road work the goal of the prisoner’s endeavors. These privi¬ 
leges should be: 

1 Editorial Engineering Record, Dec. 16, 1911, p. 697. 

Newark (New Jersey') News, Jan. 2, 1912. 

Herbert S. Hadley, Ex-Governor of Missouri, in St. Louis Globe Democrat, 
Nov. 12, 1911. 

Johnstown (Pa.) Tribune, Oct. 1 7 > I 9 10 * 

Reading (Pa.) Telegram, Dec. 6, 1912. 

Recommendations of Committee on Industries to legislature, to work convicts 
in New York state on the roads, as reported in New York Press, Oct. 8, 1913. 

Albany Argus, Oct. 8, 1913. 

Plattsboro Press, Oct. 9, 1913. 


82 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


(1) Absence of guns and chains. 

(2) Substitution of plain uniform for stripes. 

(3) Commutation of sentence. 

(4) Better food. 

(5) A wage. 

(6) Freedom after work hours. 

The uniform may be gray or khaki although any color which 
does not attract attention is suitable. 

The commutation of sentence should be in addition to what 
is allowed ordinarily and in amount from ten to thirty days 
per month’s work. It ought to be enough to make a real in¬ 
ducement and yet not so much as to free the prisoner before 
he has had a chance to repay his debt to the state. In the 
West ten days a month is the usual amount. This works 
satisfactorily and appears to be about the reasonable allowance. 

Improvement in quality of food over regular prison fare is 
necessary because the work is harder. In the country dis¬ 
tricts where the camps are located, it is quite easy to get 
wholesome farm produce. Many camps have an expert cook 
employed. Experience shows that it is economy to take care 
of the food rather than rely upon the doctor. 

The camps must be made clean, and the sanitary rules 
strictly enforced. A supply of good water is essential. For 
well organized work on a large scale, tents make an especially 
good camp for summer, giving excellent ventilation and being 
easily packed and moved. Collapsible wooden houses are 
suitable for more rigorous climates. Where the work is in 
small jobs, a bunk wagon is convenient, holding a dozen or 
more men, with sides interchangeable for summer and winter. 
All these styles of camps have been successfully used; the 
choice among them depends upon local conditions. 

The prisoner should be made to do some work, but choice as 
to its nature should be optional. There has been no diffi¬ 
culty experienced in getting a full complement for the road 
gang, its advantages being well recognized. All the con¬ 
victs are not physically fitted for the work; a physician’s ex¬ 
amination will indicate this fact. As to the choice of men 
to whom the option of joining the honor road camp shall be 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


83 

extended, the basis must be that of the possibility of doing 
them good. On this basis the short-termer and the life- 
termer, the misdemeanant and the murderer have an equal 
chance according as they show a capability for trust and indi¬ 
cate the possibility of reform. 

Payment of a wage is essential, providing that the prisoner 
really earns something. The latter feature is of great im¬ 
portance. It cannot be expected that the state should pay for 
services not rendered, especially when the prisoner’s debt is 
already heavy. It is impossible to know how much the pris¬ 
oner earns, or whether he earns anything, without an accurate 
estimate of the work done and its value. Guesswork as here¬ 
tofore used is folly. It is essential to have the exact amount 
from which the money value may be deduced. The engineer’s 
estimates and monthly progress reports, while useful in ad¬ 
justing the wage, are also good business policy. What con¬ 
tracting company would dispense with them? The state is 
surely as big an organization as most business concerns and 
can well attempt to follow the same line of economy and scien¬ 
tific supervision. 

Close watch of the work not only will give the profit to the 
state but will show the exact state of progress, the probable 
time of completion, the need of various supplies, the possible 
use of additional laborers, and the date at which other pro¬ 
visions for employment of the road gang must be made. In 
short, this method makes possible a rational supervision from 
the office to suit the actual conditions in the field. Further, 
it gives a close estimate for later work of similar character, 
and enables the profiting from mistakes and from improve¬ 
ment in methods. 

The cost data ought also to give the expenditures for sub¬ 
sistence, materials and equipment. Sudden changes from 
month to month may then be investigated. Such super¬ 
vision has a salutary effect on the officials; waste is minimized 
and machinery is carefully handled. Since public reports 
have to be made, a good showing is essential to the continu¬ 
ance of the work. The public has a right to know how its 
money is expended. The best way of reporting is undoubt- 


8 4 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


edly by unit prices. By this means the costs are reduced to 
terms which may be compared with practically all other work 
on a common basis. Knowledge of the expense incident to the 
use of one convict a day, including subsistence, materials and 
supervision, is also useful, especially in estimating the amount 
of money necessary to run the camp in future similar work. 
Total costs are necessary from the standpoint of accounts, but 
otherwise are misleading since they do not take into account 
the variation of amount and kind of work. In justice to the 
state itself, to the taxpayer out of whose pocket the funds come, 
to the convict who does the work and should receive his share 
of credit, and on the ground of good business principles, 
the cost data should be fully and carefully kept. 

The question of administration is an important one. This 
discussion has been confined almost wholly to work suitable for 
state convicts. Likewise the roads to be improved would best 
be state roads, that class of highways constructed entirely at 
the expense of the state. In this way the state alone is in¬ 
volved. In many states the construction of roads in con¬ 
junction with the counties is illegal, since it is then necessary 
to enter into a contract, which arrangement is enjoined by the 
law abolishing every form of contract labor for prisoners. 
With county prisoners on county roads the same considerations 
apply. It is necessary that prison accounts be settled imme¬ 
diately since they are usually balanced every year, and the 
appropriations allowed do not permit extended credit. With 
state prisoners on state roads, the bills are readily paid by a 
simple transfer from the account of the state highway depart¬ 
ment to that of the penitentiary. The state and county ar¬ 
rangement means cash payment. Failure to pay promptly 
causes trouble to the prison department. 

The work must necessarily be under the joint supervision 
of the state prison and highway departments. 1 Primarily the 
workmen are prisoners; they should be in charge of prison rep¬ 
resentatives to whom belongs the responsibility for proper 
work and discipline as much as when within the penitentiary 


1 See state histories supra, pp. 17-39. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


85 

walls. At the same time the construction is a part of the state 
road work and since the highway department provides the 
funds, it should provide the supervision under a competent 
representative to see that the construction is carried on econom¬ 
ically and scientifically. The guards then become foremen, 
directing the workmen under the superintendence of the state's 
engineer. These two phases of authority need not conflict, 
inasmuch as the duties are quite separate. The attitude would 
be one of cooperation rather than antagonism, since the end 
of usefulness and economy is common to both. A similar 
arrangement exists in all municipal contract work, where the 
city or state engineer directs the work of the contractor. 

Attempts have been made to combine these two duties by 
stipulating that the prison “ guard ” shall be a “ competent 
road builder." Such a requirement is difficult to meet. Prac¬ 
tical roadmen have few aspirations to become penitentiary 
guards, and guards have not had experience in highway con¬ 
struction. Moreover, the salary is not usually enough to at¬ 
tract good men. The state, however, employs competent road 
engineers. It has a definite system for its work and definite 
standards of construction. The prison organization is also 
satisfactory. By thus combining the two there is no reason 
why good results should not be obtained. This plan has al¬ 
ready proved satisfactory and is recommended for future use. 

In various states there are different methods of dividing the 
cost of the work. In some, where the law does not prevent, 
the counties arrange for the payment of a specified portion. 
The state usually furnishes the guards and engineering ser¬ 
vices, and the county the materials and equipment. No fixed 
rule governs the payment for transportation and subsistence; 
sometimes the county and sometimes the state provides one or 
both. In other cases the county pays a flat rate per convict 
day in consideration of these items. Where the state gives 
more than would be expended if the prisoners were kept in the 
jail, it really amounts to a form of state aid. It would seem 
a more equitable arrangement for the counties to pay a definite 
percentage of the total cost, in this way putting all localities 
on the same footing. The state might require a county to 


86 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


raise its pro rata amount before the convicts would be sent. 
In this way difficulty in final settlement would be partly ob¬ 
viated. This relieves the county also. It would be un¬ 
economical for a county to go to expensive outlay for equip¬ 
ment, for instance, unless there were some reasonable assur¬ 
ance that similar work could later be continued on as large a 
scale. The state, however, could well afford a more extensive 
and complete set of tools to be moved with the road gang. 

Local conditions of necessity govern individual cases. 
Where possible, state convicts should be employed on state 
roads, and county convicts on county roads. If some arrange¬ 
ment has to be made with the counties, it should be such as to 
insure prompt payment to the state penitentiary; it should 
give all counties an equal chance to obtain the benefits of 
convict labor at the same proportionate cost; and it should be 
economical in operation. 

The honor road camps will provide for only a portion of 
the penitentiary inmates; for the others several possibilities 
are open. The state quarries have been almost universally 
successful with the class of prisoners who require armed 
guards, and the output from them has seldom been equal to 
the demand. These two kinds of work connected with roads 
are correlated and need not interfere with each other, since 
they use totally different classes of prisoners. 

There is still another form of employment which has not 
been fully recognized as yet, but which offers great possibil¬ 
ities, viz., concrete culvert and bridge work. In many states, 
this is the only form of road work not permitted, on the ground 
that it requires skilled labor. This, while true in part, is not 
a valid objection. The bridge is a fundamental part of the 
road; it is as much the property of the state as the traveled 
way and it benefits the public just as much as the highway 
itself. Has not the state the right to use its own property 
(convicts) to improve its own property (roads), irrespective 
of the class of workmanship required? 

The question of drainage is the first and pricipal one in road 
work. It affects the fundamental part of the road, the foun¬ 
dation, and should be provided for first, even if it takes all the 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


87 

available funds. A dirt road, well drained, may be a good 
road the year round, while a macadam road, ill drained, may 
be almost impassable part of the time. Many a road, other¬ 
wise serviceable, has been rendered unfit for use through lack 
of suitable drainage. It is evident that convicts could not be 
employed on work of greater advantage to the cause of good 
roads than in building bridges to remove water from the high¬ 
ways, at the same time improving the surrounding property. 

The objection to such use evidently arises in consideration 
of the competition with skilled labor. Carpenters, masons, 
and possibly blacksmiths might be classed as “ skilled ” but the 
large bulk of the workmen used would still be manual laborers 
only and “ unskilled.” The use of convict labor in much 
larger numbers for the construction of many prison buildings 
has seemed justifiable, so that the antagonism in the case of 
bridge building rests upon comparatively trivial grounds. 

The work itself, on the other hand, is of a nature in many 
ways specially adapted to the employment of prisoners. It 
would take care of a comparatively large force of men within 
narrow limits. This means economy of supervision and also 
of guarding, if required; facility in providing for the keep of 
men and animals; and the elimination of much transporta¬ 
tion to and from the work or of the necessity of frequently 
moving camp. Bridge building can be carried on indepen¬ 
dently of the rest of the work, and in advance of it. The 
camp may be of a semi-permanent character, remaining in one 
location from start to finish until a shift of force becomes 
necessary. 

According to the size of the culvert or bridge, the number 
of men in the gang will be determined. If only a few are 
needed, in which case guarding would be unduly expensive, the 
honor system would find its most advantageous use. All con¬ 
ditions from this to the employment of a large force under 
heavy guard in extensive work would be encountered, so that 
the system would provide for various classes of convicts. 

A special advantage is that concrete work is more inter¬ 
esting than the general run of highway construction and at 
the same time requires a higher grade of labor even among 


88 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


the unskilled. It demands a man capable of doing more 
than wielding a shovel. By designating a part of the pris¬ 
oners for this work alone, an efficient organization would soon 
develop and it is believed that as gratifying results from the 
standpoint of costs and saving would obtain. In conjunction 
with the quarry and the highway proper, the bridge construc¬ 
tion would afford a full complement of work, providing elas¬ 
ticity to the whole system, whereby almost every class of con¬ 
vict labor would find the opportunity of doing good work 
for the state. 

The road of a few years ago, built of telford, macadam, or 
gravel, cannot be economically used today in many sections 
of the country, because of rapid deterioration under heavy 
automobile traffic. Instead, brick, cement, concrete or some 
sort of asphaltic pavement is used. That convicts can be 
useful in building brick highways has been shown by the Ohio 
experiments already mentioned, but as far as is known, no 
attempt has yet been made to utilize them for constructing 
bituminous pavements and surfaces. It seems that they could 
not be so efficiently used in constructing the latter type of 
highway for three reasons: (i) The bituminous and .other 
materials are so costly that they form a large percentage of 
the outlay, and the labor, which the convicts must perform, 
constitutes a correspondingly smaller part. (2) The use of 
improved machinery has reduced to a minimum the amount 
of manual labor required. (3) Many patented processes or ma¬ 
terials are controlled and used only by authorized private 
representatives. This disability as to convict labor applies 
only to work on the wearing surface, and does not necessarily 
prevent the building of the bridges and subgrade by prisoners, 
even in the case of bituminous roads. Whatever the type of 
road, the state prisoners could at least care for the grading, 
thereby saving the state a large amount for that item. While 
the wearing surfaces are subject to deterioration, and there¬ 
fore are of more or less temporary value only, the drainage 
work and grading, properly done, are of lasting benefit with 
no decrease in value. 

Humanitarian motives demand that a convict be worked in 


USE OF CONVICT LAB OF IN THE NORTH 


89 

the open at strenuous manual labor. Utilitarian considera¬ 
tions indicate that the preference be given to road work 
rather than to the farm. The economic aspects of the case 
determine the particular class of road work. The commodity 
which the convict has to offer is manual labor. The question 
is, in what way can this manual labor be turned to best ac¬ 
count for the state? Naturally, it is in that direction where 
it can earn most. The experience of various states shows the 
greatest earning power when used in the direction of earth 
moving, that is, in grading. This item, especially throughout 
those mountainous western states where convicts have been 
most used, amounts to the major part of the cost in the type of 
roads built. It is significant also that in the important case, 
(Onondaga County, New York) where other items, such as 
stone, formed a substantial part of the cost, the saving was 
little if any and the financial economy was negligible. It is 
unfortunate that the data are so meager and the evidence is so 
inconclusive on this point, but it is safe to say that the great¬ 
est amount of money saved up to the present time through 
convict labor has been in the item of earthwork. The pass¬ 
ing of the old and the advent of the new or higher type of 
road still leaves the opportunity for utilizing convict labor, 
since the cost of excavation and embankment forms a consider¬ 
able part of the expense of all types of roads, and bridge 
work is essential for either the old or the new type. 

This study of the convict labor problem as applied to the 
northern states suggests the following conclusions. Convicts 
should have some work to do. Labor on public highways 
provides the best form of employment for prisoners because: 

(1) It is healthy out-of-door work. 

(2) It improves morals and helps reformation. 

(3) It is uniformly attractive to the men. 

(4) It enables the payment of a wage. 

It is the best use from the standpoint of the state and so¬ 
ciety, because: 

(1) It competes least with free labor. 

(2) It benefits all the people with a needed improvement at 
least cost. 


90 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


(3) By reformation of the lowest class, it elevates the whole 
social order. 

(4) It provides revenue to the state instead of causing ex¬ 
pense. 

(5) It decreases the amount of crime. 

(6) Of all the present forms of convict employment, it 
gives the largest returns in money value. 

Experience shows that: 

(1) The system can be successfully applied under varying 
conditions of climate, location, and class of prisoners. 

(2) As far as possible the honor system should be used 
and commutation of sentence allowed. 

(3) The choice of convicts for honor road work should be 
based upon temperamental fitness rather than upon nature of 
crime and length of term, but acceptance should be voluntary 
on the part of the prisoner and dependent on his satisfactory 
physical condition. 

(4) Of all kinds of convict employment, that on the high¬ 
ways should be most attractive in wages and privileges. 

(5) A wage should be paid not to exceed the net earnings of 
the prisoner. 

(6) Accurate data should be kept to show all unit costs, 
together with the engineer’s estimates of the amount and value 
of the work done. 

(7) The prisoners should be under the prison representatives 
acting as foremen, and construction work should be under the 
highway department acting as engineers. 

(8) Concrete bridge work, grading and drainage present a 
very useful form of work and should be generally employed. 

Although the eastern states are faced by many differences 
in conditions from those states where this innovation has been 
so successfully tried, the difficulties are not insurmountable. 
The utilization of state prisoners to build up road systems 
should prove a general benefit and a public economy in the 
East as it has already done in the West. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


91 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

Acknowledgment is due to the highway and prison officials 
of all the states herein mentioned, for kindness in making 
corrections and additions to the state histories. All accounts 
except that of Iowa are as of March, 1913. In Iowa, such 
definite progress has been made during the past few months 
that it has been included. The files of newspaper clippings 
and correspondence of the National Committee on Prison 
Labor furnished much valuable information. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Arizona 

Official Correspondence. 1 
Clippings: 

Burlington (Ft.) Free Press , Oct. 22, 1912. 

St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch , Sept. 29, 1912. 

New York World , Dec. 25, 1912. 

Asheville (N. C.) News, Oct. 21, 1912. 

California 

Report of State Comptroller, 1910. 

Report of State Prisons , 1910. 

Official Correspondence. 

Colorado 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, pages 283-285. 

Good Roads, Nov. 4, 1911, article by Thos. J. Tynan. 

Clippings: 

Salem (Ore.) Statesman, Jan. 29, 1913. 

Burlington (Iowa) Gazette, Mar. 31, 1911. 

Kansas City (Mo.) Star, May 22, 1911. 

Pueblo (Colo.) Star-Journal, April 3, 1911; May 14, 1911; Dec. 29, 1911. 
St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, July 29, 1911. 

Colorado Springs (Colo.) Gazette, May 13* I 9 11 * 

New York Telegram, May 22, 1911. 

Denver (Colo.) Times, Aug. 13, 1911. 

Portland (Ore.) Oregonian, Mar. 26, 1911. 

San Antonio, (Tex.) Daily Express, Nov. 25, 1911. 

State Prison Report, biennial period ending Nov. 30, 1910. 

Better Roads, Oct., 1912. 

Illinois 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912. 

Penitentiary Report, Sept., 1910. 

Official Correspondence. 

1 The words “ Official Correspondence ” refer in every case to official 
correspondence in the files of the National Committee on Prison Labor. 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


92 

Iowa 

Report Iowa State Board of Control, G. S. Robinson, Dec., 1912. 

Official Correspondence. 

Warden’s Report , June 30, 1912. 

Clippings: 

Burlington {Iowa) Gazette, Mar. 31, 1911. 

Des Moines {Iowa) Register Leader, April 25, 1911. 

Marshalltown {Iowa) Republican, Oct. 19, 1912. 

Kansas 

Official Correspondence. 

Clippings : 

Municipal Engineering, Sept. 26, 1912. 

Iola {Kan.) Register, Dec. 17, 1912. 

Michigan 

Eingineering Record, Feb. 24, 1912. 

Official Correspondence. 

Minnesota 

Report of the State Reformatory, 1911-12. 

Official Correspondence. 

Missouri 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, pp. 291-292. 

Official Correspondence. 

Clippings : 

St. Louis {Mo.) Globe-Democrat, Nov. 12, 1911. 

Montana 

Address of Attorney General A. J. Galen, at Montana Good Roads Asso¬ 
ciation, July 9, 1912. 

Official Correspondence. 

Clippings : 

Great Falls {Mont.) Tribune, Jan. 20, 1912. 

Helena {Mont.) Record, May 19, 1911. 

Nevada 

Report of the Warden of the State Prison, 1912. 

New Jersey 

Good Roads, Dec. 28, 1912. 

Official Correspondence. 

Clippings: 

Nezvark {N. I.) Nezvs, Jan. 2, 1912; Dec. 24, 1912; Jan. 25, 1913. 
Baltimore {Md.) News, April 8, 1912. 

New Mexico 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, p. 293. 

Report of Superintendent of the Penitentiary, 1912. 

Clippings: 

El Paso {Tex.) Herald, Oct. 19, 1912. 

New York 

Engineering-Contracting, Feb. 28, 1912. 

Minutes of the Board of County Supervisors, Onondaga County, N. Y., 
Feb. 3, 1913, pp. 42-43. 

Official Correspondence. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


93 


Clippings: 

Albany {N. Y.) Knickerbocker Press, Oct. 27, 1911. 

Syracuse {N. Y.) Post-Standard, Nov. 22, 1912; Feb. 4, 1913. 

Oklahoma 

Report Iowa State Board of Control, G. S. Robinson, Dec., 1912. 
Oregon 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, p. 293. 

Report Superintendent State Penitentiary, 1905-1911. 

Clippings : 

Nashville (Tenn.) Banner, Dec. 4, 1912. 

Tulsa {Okla.) World, May 6, 1912. 

Sunset, San Francisco, April, 1912. 

Utah 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, p. 293. 

Report of the State Superintendent of Penitentiary, 1912. 

Clippings : 

Salt Lake City {Utah) Tribune, June 20, 1911. 

Salt Lake City {Utah) News, Dec. 21, 1912. 


Washington 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, p. 297. 
Engineering-Contracting, June 26, 1912. 

Good Roads, July, 1910. 

State Highway Report, 1910. 

Report of State Board of Control, 1911. 

Clippings: 

Spokane {Wash.) Spokesman-Review, April 14, 1911. 
Portland {Ore.) Oregonian, March 12, 1911. 


GENERAL 


Penal Servitude, E. Stagg Whitin, Ph. D. National Committee on Prison 
Labor, Columbia University, 1912. 

The Caged Rian, E. Stagg Whitin, Ph. D., Bulletin of Social Legislation of 
the Henry Bergh Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education, 
no. 1, pp. 1-117. 

Prison Labor, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 
vol. xlvi, no. 135. 

The Attitude of Union Labor Toward Prison Labor, John P. Frey, Proceed¬ 
ings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1912. 

Prisoners’ Work, E. Stagg Whitin, Ph. D., American Unitarian Assn., Social 
Service Series, Bulletin no. 27. 

Publications of the National Committee on Prison Labor as follows: 

Leaflets No. 2, Making Roads through Prison Labor. 

No. 3, Prison Labor in Party Platforms of 1910. 

No. 4, Prison Labor in the Governors’ Messages of 1911. 

No. 5, The Prison Labor Movement of 1910-1911 as shown by 
Party Platforms, Governors’ Messages, and Legislation. 

No. 6, Trade Unions and Prison Labor, E. Stagg Whitin, Ph. D. 

Reprinted from Case and Comment, September, 1912. 

No. 7, Prison Labor in the Party Platforms of 1911-12. 

No. 8, Prison Labor in the Governors’ Messages of 1912-13. 

No. 11, The Wage Earner and the Prison Worker, John Mitchell. 


94 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVIC1 LABOR 


No. 12, Prison Labor and Prisoners’ Families, Jane Addams. 

No. 13, Why I could not Pardon the Contract System, G. W. 
Donaghey. 

No. 14, Prison Labor on Public Roads, Thomas J. Tynan. 

No. 17, The State-Use System, Collis Lovely. 

No. 18, Prison Labor and Social Justice, F. Emory Lyon. 

No. 19, Prison Labor Reform in New Jersey, C. L. Stonaker. 

No. 20, The True Foundation of Prison Reform, Thos. M. Osborne. 
Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, 1913. 

Engineering Record, Dec. 16, 1911; June 17, 1911; Feb. 10 and Feb. 24, 1912. 
Economics of Convict Labor and Road Construction. Good Roads circular 
no. 97, North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey. Jos. Hyde 
Pratt, Feb. 18, 1914. 

Substitute for the Convict Lease System, article by E. Stagg Whitin, Ph. D. 

in The Southern Workman, March, 1914. 

The Contractor, Oct. I, 1911. 

American Motorist, Feb. 1912. 

Southern Good Roads, Feb., 1912. 

Public Officials’ Magazine, Sept, and Oct., 1910. 

Better Roads, Feb., 1912. 

Good Roads, Aug. 5 and Nov. 4, 1911; Jan. 6, 1912. 

Engineering-Contracting, Jan. 18, 1911; Feb. 5, 1913. 

Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Labor, 1905. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 81 

ports of state work to date show that it is capable of use under 
varying conditions. Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, 
Ohio and Onondaga County, New York, present climatic and 
geographical conditions as varied as is possible in the northern 
states. All classes of prisoners have been used, from mere 
misdemeanants to life-termers. The system has been tried 
in the wilds of Washington and Colorado and in the deserts of 
Arizona, in the suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Trenton, New 
Jersey, and through the farm lands of central New York. 

There are parts of New York state and Pennsylvania very 
similar to the country in Colorado and Washington, and these 
sections need good roads. The class of prisoners differs, it 
is said, being of a less dependable type in the East than in the 
West. Yet the numbers here are greater. Surely of all the 
large prison population some can be found as well suited for 
road work as in Colorado. It cannot be claimed that all are 
fitted for employment on the highways; some must always be 
under close watch and others are physically incapable. But it 
is claimed that the success of Colorado may be duplicated 
in New York; that the physical conditions and the classes of 
convicts employed in the two cases need not be radically dif¬ 
ferent; and that the intelligence and capability of our public 
officials make the harmonizing of convicts and road work as 
much a possibility here in the East as in the West . 1 

The evidence available indicates the advisability of follow¬ 
ing the honor system, for the good of both the convict and 
the state. The privileges given should be such as to make 
road work the goal of the prisoner’s endeavors. These privi¬ 
leges should be: 

1 Editorial Engineering Record , Dec. 16, 1911, P- 697. 

Newark (New Jersey') Netus, Jan. 2, 1912. 

Herbert S. Hadley, Ex-Governor of Missouri, in St. Louis Globe Democrat, 
Nov. 12, 1911. 

Johnstown (Pa.) Tribune , Oct. 17, I 9 10 * 

Reading (Pa.) Telegram, Dec. 6, 1912. 

Recommendations of Committee on Industries to legislature, to work convicts 
in New York state on the roads, as reported in New York Press , Oct. 8, 1913. 

Albany Argus, Oct. 8, 1913. 

Plattsboro Press , Oct. 9, 1913. 


82 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


(1) Absence of guns and chains. 

(2) Substitution of plain uniform for stripes. 

(3) Commutation of sentence. 

(4) Better food. 

(5) A wage. 

(6) Freedom after work hours. 

The uniform may be gray or khaki although any color which 
does not attract attention is suitable. 

The commutation of sentence should be in addition to what 
is allowed ordinarily and in amount from ten to thirty days 
per month’s work. It ought to be enough to make a real in¬ 
ducement and yet not so much as to free the prisoner before 
he has had a chance to repay his debt to the state. In the 
West ten days a month is the usual amount. This works 
satisfactorily and appears to be about the reasonable allowance. 

Improvement in quality of food over regular prison fare is 
necessary because the work is harder. In the country dis¬ 
tricts where the camps are located, it is quite easy to get 
wholesome farm produce. Many camps have an expert cook 
employed. Experience shows that it is economy to take care 
of the food rather than rely upon the doctor. 

The camps must be made clean, and the sanitary rules 
strictly enforced. A supply of good water is essential. For 
well organized work on a large scale, tents make an especially 
good camp for summer, giving excellent ventilation and being 
easily packed and moved. Collapsible wooden houses are 
suitable for more rigorous climates. Where the work is in 
small jobs, a bunk wagon is convenient, holding a dozen or 
more men, with sides interchangeable for summer and winter. 
All these styles of camps have been successfully used; the 
choice among them depends upon local conditions. 

The prisoner should be made to do some work, but choice as 
to its nature should be optional. There has been no diffi¬ 
culty experienced in getting a full complement for the road 
gang, its advantages being well recognized. All the con¬ 
victs are not physically fitted for the work; a physician’s ex¬ 
amination will indicate this fact. As to the choice of men 
to whom the option of joining the honor road camp shall be 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


83 

extended, the basis must be that of the possibility of doing 
them good. On this basis the short-termer and the life- 
termer, the misdemeanant and the murderer have an equal 
chance according as they show a capability for trust and indi¬ 
cate the possibility of reform. 

Payment of a wage is essential, providing that the prisoner 
really earns something. The latter feature is of great im¬ 
portance. It cannot be expected that the state should pay for 
services not rendered, especially when the prisoner’s debt is 
already heavy. It is impossible to know how much the pris¬ 
oner earns, or whether he earns anything, without an accurate 
estimate of the work done and its value. Guesswork as here¬ 
tofore used is folly. It is essential to have the exact amount 
from which the money value may be deduced. The engineer’s 
estimates and monthly progress reports, while useful in ad¬ 
justing the wage, are also good business policy. What con¬ 
tracting company would dispense with them? The state is 
surely as big an organization as most business concerns and 
can well attempt to follow the same line of economy and scien¬ 
tific supervision. 

Close watch of the work not only will give the profit to the 
state but will show the exact state of progress, the probable 
time of completion, the need of various supplies, the possible 
use of additional laborers, and the date at which other pro¬ 
visions for employment of the road gang must be made. In 
short, this method makes possible a rational supervision from 
the office to suit the actual conditions in the field. Further, 
it gives a close estimate for later work of similar character, 
and enables the profiting from mistakes and from improve¬ 
ment in methods. 

The cost data ought also to give the expenditures for sub¬ 
sistence, materials and equipment. Sudden changes from 
month to month may then be investigated. Such super¬ 
vision has a salutary effect on the officials; waste is minimized 
and machinery is carefully handled. Since public reports 
have to be made, a good showing is essential to the continu¬ 
ance of the work. The public has a right to know how its 
money is expended. The best way of reporting is undoubt- 


84 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


edly by unit prices. By this means the costs are reduced to 
terms which may be compared with practically all other work 
on a common basis. Knowledge of the expense incident to the 
use of one convict a day, including subsistence, materials and 
supervision, is also useful, especially in estimating the amount 
of money necessary to run the camp in future similar work. 
Total costs are necessary from the standpoint of accounts, but 
otherwise are misleading since they do not take into account 
the variation of amount and kind of work. In justice to the 
state itself, to the taxpayer out of whose pocket the funds come, 
to the convict who does the work and should receive his share 
of credit, and on the ground of good business principles, 
the cost data should be fully and carefully kept. 

The question of administration is an important one. This 
discussion has been confined almost wholly to work suitable for 
state convicts. Likewise the roads to be improved would best 
be state roads, that class of highways constructed entirely at 
the expense of the state. In this way the state alone is in¬ 
volved. In many states the construction of roads in con¬ 
junction with the counties is illegal, since it is then necessary 
to enter into a contract, which arrangement is enjoined by the 
law abolishing every form of contract labor for prisoners. 
With county prisoners on county roads the same considerations 
apply. It is necessary that prison accounts be settled imme¬ 
diately since they are usually balanced every year, and the 
appropriations allowed do not permit extended credit. With 
state prisoners on state roads, the bills are readily paid by a 
simple transfer from the account of the state highway depart¬ 
ment to that of the penitentiary. The state and county ar¬ 
rangement means cash payment. Failure to pay promptly 
causes trouble to the prison department. 

The work must necessarily be under the joint supervision 
of the state prison and highway departments. 1 Primarily the 
workmen are prisoners; they should be in charge of prison rep¬ 
resentatives to whom belongs the responsibility for proper 
work and discipline as much as when within the penitentiary 


1 See state histories supra, pp. 17-39. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


85 

walls. At the same time the construction is a part of the state 
road work and since the highway department provides the 
funds, it should provide the supervision under a competent 
representative to see that the construction is carried on econom¬ 
ically and scientifically. The guards then become foremen, 
directing the workmen under the superintendence of the state’s 
engineer. These two phases of authority need not conflict, 
inasmuch as the duties are quite separate. The attitude would 
be one of cooperation rather than antagonism, since the end 
of usefulness and economy is common to both. A similar 
arrangement exists in all municipal contract work, where the 
city or state engineer directs the work of the contractor. 

Attempts have been made to combine these two duties by 
stipulating that the prison “ guard ” shall be a “ competent 
road builder.” Such a requirement is difficult to meet. Prac¬ 
tical roadmen have few aspirations to become penitentiary 
guards, and guards have not had experience in highway con¬ 
struction. Moreover, the salary is not usually enough to at¬ 
tract good men. The state, however, employs competent road 
engineers. It has a definite system for its work and definite 
standards of construction. The prison organization is also 
satisfactory. By thus combining the two there is no reason 
why good results should not be obtained. This plan has al¬ 
ready proved satisfactory and is recommended for future use. 

In various states there are different methods of dividing the 
cost of the work. In some, where the law does not prevent, 
the counties arrange for the payment of a specified portion. 
The state usually furnishes the guards and engineering ser¬ 
vices, and the county the materials and equipment. No fixed 
rule governs the payment for transportation and subsistence; 
sometimes the county and sometimes the state provides one or 
both. In other cases the county pays a flat rate per convict 
day in consideration of these items. Where the state gives 
more than would be expended if the prisoners were kept in the 
jail, it really amounts to a form of state aid. It would seem 
a more equitable arrangement for the counties to pay a definite 
percentage of the total cost, in this way putting all localities 
on the same footing. The state might require a county to 


86 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


raise its pro rata amount before the convicts would be sent. 
In this way difficulty in final settlement would be partly ob¬ 
viated. This relieves the county also. It would be un¬ 
economical for a county to go to expensive outlay for equip¬ 
ment, for instance, unless there were some reasonable assur¬ 
ance that similar work could later be continued on as large a 
scale. The state, however, could well afford a more extensive 
and complete set of tools to be moved with the road gang. 

Local conditions of necessity govern individual cases. 
Where possible, state convicts should be employed on state 
roads, and county convicts on county roads. If some arrange¬ 
ment has to be made with the counties, it should be such as to 
insure prompt payment to the state penitentiary; it should 
give all counties an equal chance to obtain the benefits of 
convict labor at the same proportionate cost; and it should be 
economical in operation. 

The honor road camps will provide for only a portion of 
the penitentiary inmates; for the others several possibilities 
are open. The state quarries have been almost universally 
successful with the class of prisoners who require armed 
guards, and the output from them has seldom been equal to 
the demand. These two kinds of work connected with roads 
are correlated and need not interfere with each other, since 
they use totally different classes of prisoners. 

There is still another form of employment which has not 
been fully recognized as yet, but which offers great possibil¬ 
ities, viz., concrete culvert and bridge work. In many states, 
this is the only form of road work not permitted, on the ground 
that it requires skilled labor. This, while true in part, is not 
a valid objection. The bridge is a fundamental part of the 
road; it is as much the property of the state as the traveled 
way and it benefits the public just as much as the highway 
itself. Has not the state the right to use its own property 
(convicts) to improve its own property (roads), irrespective 
of the class of workmanship required? 

The question of drainage is the first and pricipal one in road 
work. It affects the fundamental part of the road, the foun¬ 
dation, and should be provided for first, even if it takes all the 


USE OF COJVV/CT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


87 

available funds. A dirt road, well drained, may be a good 
road the year round, while a macadam road, ill drained, may 
be almost impassable part of the time. Many a road, other¬ 
wise serviceable, has been rendered unfit for use through lack 
of suitable drainage. It is evident that convicts could not be 
employed on work of greater advantage to the cause of good 
roads than in building bridges to remove water from the high¬ 
ways, at the same time improving the surrounding property. 

The objection to such use evidently arises in consideration 
of the competition with skilled labor. Carpenters, masons, 
and possibly blacksmiths might be classed as “ skilled ” but the 
large bulk of the workmen used would still be manual laborers 
only and “ unskilled.” The use of convict labor in much 
larger numbers for the construction of many prison buildings 
has seemed justifiable, so that the antagonism in the case of 
bridge building rests upon comparatively trivial grounds. 

The work itself, on the other hand, is of a nature in many 
ways specially adapted to the employment of prisoners. It 
would take care of a comparatively large force of men within 
narrow limits. This means economy of supervision and also 
of guarding, if required; facility in providing for the keep of 
men and animals; and the elimination of much transporta¬ 
tion to and from the work or of the necessity of frequently 
moving camp. Bridge building can be carried on indepen¬ 
dently of the rest of the work, and in advance of it. The 
camp may be of a semi-permanent character, remaining in one 
location from start to finish until a shift of force becomes 
necessary. 

According to the size of the culvert or bridge, the number 
of men in the gang will be determined. If only a few are 
needed, in which case guarding would be unduly expensive, the 
honor system would find its most advantageous use. All con¬ 
ditions from this to the employment of a large force under 
heavy guard in extensive work would be encountered, so that 
the system would provide for various classes of convicts. 

A special advantage is that concrete work is more inter¬ 
esting than the general run of highway construction and at 
the same time requires a higher grade of labor even among 


88 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


the unskilled. It demands a man capable of doing more 
than wielding a shovel. By designating a part of the pris¬ 
oners for this work alone, an efficient organization would soon 
develop and it is believed that as gratifying results from the 
standpoint of costs and saving would obtain. In conjunction 
with the quarry and the highway proper, the bridge construc¬ 
tion would afford a full complement of work, providing elas¬ 
ticity to the whole system, whereby almost every class of con¬ 
vict labor would find the opportunity of doing good work 
for the state. 

The road of a few years ago, built of telford, macadam, or 
gravel, cannot be economically used today in many sections 
of the country, because of rapid deterioration under heavy 
automobile traffic. Instead, brick, cement, concrete or some 
sort of asphaltic pavement is used. That convicts can be 
useful in building brick highways has been shown by the Ohio 
experiments already mentioned, but as far as is known, no 
attempt has yet been made to utilize them for constructing 
bituminous pavements and surfaces. It seems that they could 
not be so efficiently used in constructing the latter type of 
highway for three reasons: (i) The bituminous and other 
materials are so costly that they form a large percentage of 
the outlay, and the labor, which the convicts must perform, 
constitutes a correspondingly smaller part. (2) The use of 
improved machinery has reduced to a minimum the amount 
of manual labor required. (3) Many patented processes or ma¬ 
terials are controlled and used only by authorized private 
representatives. This disability as to convict labor applies 
only to work on the wearing surface, and does not necessarily 
prevent the building of the bridges and subgrade by prisoners, 
even in the case of bituminous roads. Whatever the type of 
road, the state prisoners could at least care for the grading, 
thereby saving the state a large amount for that item. While 
the wearing surfaces are subject to deterioration, and there¬ 
fore are of more or less temporary value only, the drainage 
work and grading, properly done, are of lasting benefit with 
no decrease in value. 

Humanitarian motives demand that a convict be worked in 


USE OF COEVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


89 

the open at strenuous manual labor. Utilitarian considera¬ 
tions indicate that the preference be given to road work 
rather than to the farm. The economic aspects of the case 
determine the particular class of road work. The commodity 
which the convict has to offer is manual labor. The question 
is, in what way can this manual labor be turned to best ac¬ 
count for the state? Naturally, it is in that direction where 
it can earn most. The experience of various states shows the 
greatest earning power when used in the direction of earth 
moving, that is, in grading. This item, especially throughout 
those mountainous western states where convicts have been 
most used, amounts to the major part of the cost in the type of 
roads built. It is significant also that in the important case, 
(Onondaga County, New York) where other items, such as 
stone, formed a substantial part of the cost, the saving was 
little if any and the financial economy was negligible. It is 
unfortunate that the data are so meager and the evidence is so 
inconclusive on this point, but it is safe to say that the great¬ 
est amount of money saved up to the present time through 
convict labor has been in the item of earthwork. The pass¬ 
ing of the old and the advent of the new or higher type of 
road still leaves the opportunity for utilizing convict labor, 
since the cost of excavation and embankment forms a consider¬ 
able part of the expense of all types of roads, and bridge 
work is essential for either the old or the new type. 

This study of the convict labor problem as applied to the 
northern states suggests the following conclusions. Convicts 
should have some work to do. Labor on public highways 
provides the best form of employment for prisoners because: 

(1) It is healthy out-of-door work. 

(2) It improves morals and helps reformation. 

(3) It is uniformly attractive to the men. 

(4) It enables the payment of a wage. 

It is the best use from the standpoint of the state and so¬ 
ciety, because: 

(1) It competes least with free labor. 

(2) It benefits all the people with a needed improvement at 
least cost. 


90 


GOOD DO ADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


(3) By reformation of the lowest class, it elevates the whole 
social order. 

(4) It provides revenue to the state instead of causing ex¬ 
pense. 

(5) It decreases the amount of crime. 

(6) Of all the present forms of convict employment, it 
gives the largest returns in money value. 

Experience shows that: 

(1) The system can be successfully applied under varying 
conditions of climate, location, and class of prisoners. 

(2) As far as possible the honor system should be used 
and commutation of sentence allowed. 

(3) The choice of convicts for honor road work should be 
based upon temperamental fitness rather than upon nature of 
crime and length of term, but acceptance should be voluntary 
on the part of the prisoner and dependent on his satisfactory 
physical condition. 

(4) Of all kinds of convict employment, that on the high¬ 
ways should be most attractive in wages and privileges. 

(5) A wage should be paid not to exceed the net earnings of 
the prisoner. 

(6) Accurate data should be kept to show all unit costs, 
together with the engineer’s estimates of the amount and value 
of the work done. 

(7) The prisoners should be under the prison representatives 
acting as foremen, and construction work should be under the 
highway department acting as engineers. 

(8) Concrete bridge work, grading and drainage present a 
very useful form of work and should be generally employed. 

Although the eastern states are faced by many differences 
in conditions from those states where this innovation has been 
so successfully tried, the difficulties are not insurmountable. 
The utilization of state prisoners to build up road systems 
should prove a general benefit and a public economy in the 
East as it has already done in the West. 


USE OF CONVICT LAB OF IN THE NORTH 


91 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

Acknowledgment is due to the highway and prison officials 
of all the states herein mentioned, for kindness in making 
corrections and additions to the state histories. All accounts 
except that of Iowa are as of March, 1913. In Iowa, such 
definite progress has been made during the past few months 
that it has been included. The files of newspaper clippings 
and correspondence of the National Committee on Prison 
Labor furnished much valuable information. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Arizona 

Official Correspondence. 1 
Clippings: 

Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, Oct. 22, 1912. 

St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch, Sept. 29, 1912. 

New York World, Dec. 25, 1912. 

Asheville (N. C.) News, Oct. 21, 1912. 

California 

Report of State Comptroller, 1910. 

Report of State Prisons, 1910. 

Official Correspondence. 

Colorado 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, pages 283-285. 

Good Roads, Nov. 4, 1911, article by Thos. J. Tynan. 

Clippings: 

Salem (Ore.) Statesman, Jan. 29, 1913. 

Burlington (Iowa) Gazette, Mar. 31, 1911. 

Kansas City (Mo.) Star , May 22, 1911. 

Pueblo (Colo.) Star-Journal, April 3, 1911; May 14, 1911; Dec. 29, 1911. 
St. Paid (Minn.) Pioneer Press, July 29, 1911. 

Colorado Springs (Colo.) Gazette, May I3> I 9 11 * 

New York Telegram, May 22, 1911. 

Denver (Colo.) Times, Aug. 13, 1911. 

Portland (Ore.) Oregonian, Mar. 26, 1911. 

San Antonio, (Tex.) Daily Express, Nov. 25, 1911. 

State Prison Report, biennial period ending Nov. 30, 1910. 

Better Roads, Oct., 1912. 

Illinois 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912. 

Penitentiary Report, Sept., 1910. 

Official Correspondence. 

1 The words “Official Correspondence” refer in every case to official 
correspondence in the files of the National Committee on Prison Labor. 


GOOD ROADS AND CONVICT LABOR 


92 

Iowa 

Report Iowa State Board of Control, G. S. Robinson, Dec., 1912. 

Official Correspondence. 

Warden’s Report, June 30, 1912. 

Clippings : 

Burlington {Iowa) Gazette, Mar. 31, 1911. 

Des Moines ( Iotva) Register Leader, April 25, 1911. 

Marshalltown {Iowa) Republican, Oct. 19, 1912. 

Kansas 

Official Correspondence. 

Clippings: 

Municipal Engineering, Sept. 26, 1912. 

Iola {Kan.) Register, Dec. 17, 1912. 

Michigan 

Engineering Record, Feb. 24, 1912. 

Official Correspondence. 

Minnesota 

Report of the State Reformatory, 1911-12. 

Official Correspondence. 

Missouri 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, pp. 291-292. 

Official Correspondence. 

Clippings : 

St. Louis {Mo.) Globe-Democrat, Nov. 12, 1911. 

Montana 

Address of Attorney General A. J. Galen, at Montana Good Roads Asso¬ 
ciation, July 9, 1912. 

Official Correspondence. 

Clippings : 

Great Falls {Mont.) Tribune, Jan. 20, 1912. 

Helena {Mont.) Record, May 19, 1911. 

Nevada 

Report of the Warden of the State Prison, 1912. 

New Jersey 

Good Roads, Dec. 28, 1912. 

Official Correspondence. 

Clippings: 

Newark {N. J.) News, Jan. 2, 1912; Dec. 24, 1912; Jan. 25, 1913. 
Baltimore {Md.) News, April 8, 1912. 

New Mexico 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, p. 293. 

Report of Superintendent of the Penitentiary, 1912. 

Clippings: 

El Paso {Tex.) Herald, Oct. 19, 1912. 

New York 

Engineering-Contracting, Feb. 28, 1912. 

Minutes of the Board of County Supervisors, Onondaga County, N. Y., 
Feb. 3, 1913, pp. 42-43. 

Official Correspondence. 


USE OF CONVICT LABOR IN THE NORTH 


93 


Clippings: 

Albany {N. Y.) Knickerbocker Press, Oct. 27, 1911. 

Syracuse ( N. Y.) Post-Standard, Nov. 22, 1912; Feb. 4, 1913. 

Oklahoma 

Report Iowa State Board of Control, G. S. Robinson, Dec., 1912. 
Oregon 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, p. 293. 

Report Superintendent State Penitentiary, 1905-1911. 

Clippings : 

Nashville {Tenn .) Banner, Dec. 4, 1912. 

Tulsa ( Okla.) World, May 6, 1912. 

Sunset, San Francisco, April, 1912. 

Utah 


Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, p. 293. 

Report of the State Superintendent of Penitentiary, 1912. 
Clippings: 

Salt Lake City {Utah) Tribune, June 20, 1911. 

Salt Lake City {Utah) News, Dec. 21, 1912. 

Washington 

Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, p. 297. 
Engineering-Contracting, June 26, 1912. 

Good Roads, July, 1910. 

State Highway Report, 1910. 

Report of State Board of Control, 1911. 

Clippings: 

Spokane {Wash.) Spokesman-Review, April 14, 1911. 
Portland {Ore.) Oregonian, March 12, 1911. 


GENERAL 


Penal Servitude, E. Stagg Whitin, Ph. D. National Committee on Prison 
Labor, Columbia University, 1912. 

The Caged Man, E. Stagg Whitin, Ph. D., Bulletin of Social Legislation of 
the Henry Bergh Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education, 


no. 1, pp. 1-117. 

Prison Labor, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 
vol. xlvi, no. 135. 

The Attitude of Union Labor Toward Prison Labor, John P. Frey, Proceed¬ 
ings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1912. 

Prisoners’ Work, E. Stagg Whitin, Ph. D., American Unitarian Assn., Social 
Service Series, Bulletin no. 27. 

Publications of the National Committee on Prison Labor as follows: 

Leaflets No. 2, Making Roads through Prison Labor. 

No. 3, Prison Labor in Party Platforms of 1910. 

No. 4, Prison Labor in the Governors’ Messages of 1911. 

No. 5, The Prison Labor Movement of 1910-1911 as shown by 
Party Platforms, Governors’ Messages, and Legislation. 

No. 6, Trade Unions and Prison Labor, E. Stagg Whitin, Ph. D. 

Reprinted from Case and Comment, September, 1912. 

No. 7, Prison Labor in the Party Platforms of 1911-12. 

No. 8, Prison Labor in the Governors’ Messages of 1912-13. 

No. 11, The Wage Earner and the Prison Worker, John Mitchell. 


94 


GOOD ROADS AND C0NVIC1 LABOR 


No. 12, Prison Labor and Prisoners’ Families, Jane Addams. 

No. 13, Why I could not Pardon the Contract System, G. W. 
Donaghey. 

No. 14, Prison Labor on Public Roads, Thomas J. Tynan. 

No. 17, The State-Use System, Collis Lovely. 

No. 18, Prison Labor and Social Justice, F. Emory Lyon. 

No. 19, Prison Labor Reform in New Jersey, C. L. Stonaker. 

No. 20, The True Foundation of Prison Reform, Thos. M. Osborne. 
Good Roads Year-Book, 1912, 1913. 

Engineering Record, Dec. 16, 1911; June 17, 1911; Feb. 10 and Feb. 24, 1912. 
Economics of Convict Labor and Road Construction. Good Roads circular 
no. 97, North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey. Jos. Hyde 
Pratt, Feb. 18, 1914. 

Substitute for the Convict Lease System, article by E. Stagg Whitin, Ph. D. 

in The Southern Workman, March, 1914. 

The Contractor, Oct. I, 1911. 

American Motorist, Feb. 1912. 

Southern Good Roads, Feb., 1912. 

Public Officials’ Magazine, Sept, and Oct., 1910. 

Better Roads, Feb., 1912. 

Good Roads, Aug. 5 and Nov. 4, 1911; Jan. 6, 1912. 

Engineering-Contracting, Jan. 18, 1911 ; Feb. 5, 1913. 

Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Labor, 1905. 


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